Fungi Locks-Up Depleted Uranium

by moonwolf | May 7, 2008 at 09:45 am | 309 views | 10 comments
Fungi may have an important role to play in the fate of potentially dangerous depleted uranium left in the environment after recent war campaigns, according to a new report in the May 6th issue of Current Biology, a publication of Cell Press.

The researchers found evidence that fungi can “lock” depleted uranium into a mineral form that may be less likely to find its way into plants, animals, or the water supply.

Add a comment Comments (10)

jwbanks
good stuff:

moonwolf, I like this story. It's good stuff.

moonwolf

Thanks jw, it's great to get any good news about DU remediation!

jordan

Well, in this case, I say, "Go, fungi!"

René

Guess that lets Iraq out. Takes moisture to grow fungi. But the article did not make clear what kind of fungi, only showed photo of mushrooms. There are many kinds of fungi. And I used to like mushrooms!

moonwolf

Put a plastic tent over the contaminated area, fill with moist air and saturate the ground, then cut the bugs loose!

René

That's a lot of plastic tents! And where do you get the moist air in Iraq? Air conditioners? Electricity isn't even on for more than a few hours a day, if they even got it in areas depleted uranium polluted. What bugs?

moonwolf

The 'bugs' are the fungi. Generate the power needed on-site, and/or collect the contaminants and move them to a remediation facility.

Hey this is all at the beginning of the research but the news so far is good news!  If indeed there are such 'bugs' then the other problems can all be handled.

René

Wait! Wait! I got it! Swamp coolers! Uh, but they need electricity, too.

Barbara McPherson

This is great news.  Are they planning to try it in Bosnia?

moonwolf

I think this is just in the laboratory development phase right now.

Add a comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.

May 7, 2008 at 09:45 am by moonwolf, 309 views, 10 comments

closeSign in to NowPublic

is reporting from