Algae Holds Promise for Nuclear Clean-Up

Scientists from the American Chemical Society reported that common freshwater algae Closterium moniliferum could be used in cleaning up after nuclear disasters, such as the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan. The algae exhibit bioremediation ability by removing strontium from water, depositing it in crystals that form vacuoles. Thus, this could be used to eliminate radioactive isotope strontium 90 from the environment.

Stronium 90 is dangerous because it can infiltrate milk, bones, bone marrow, blood, and other tissues, where the radiation that it emits can possibly cause cancer. "That's what makes strontium 90 one of the dominant health risks of spent fuel for the first 100 years or so after it leaves the reactor," says Krejci. The radioisotope has a half-life of about 30 years.

However, the algae mostly collect barium. Minna Krejci, a materials scientist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, together with other scientists have found that it is possible to make the algae more strontium-selective by limiting the amount of barium available in the environment. "Once we learn about how the cells respond to conditions, we can think of more elegant ways to manipulate them," says Krejci.

Know more details at http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=algae-holds-promise-for-nuclear.