Fungi Locks-Up Depleted Uranium

by moonwolf | May 7, 2008 at 12:45 pm | 284 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.

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jwbanks

at 12:59 on May 7th, 2008

good stuff:

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

moonwolf

at 13:15 on May 7th, 2008

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

jordan

at 13:28 on May 7th, 2008

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

René

at 14:43 on May 7th, 2008

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

at 16:08 on May 7th, 2008

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

René

at 16:40 on May 7th, 2008

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

at 16:42 on May 7th, 2008

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.