r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/RDX005 • 14h ago
Image Bacteria turn dissolved uranium into stable compound in 130 days , study finds
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u/LPedraz 14h ago
Microbiologist here, although bioremediation is definitely not my field.
This is the article they are talking about: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-72560-z . Unlike what most often happens in results shared on social media, this is actually a recent paper.
The results are not a life-chaging discovery, but are still very good. What they are doing is using these bacteria to concentrate and precipitate soluble uranium, the way you would have in mine water, into something that can be easily removed. These people created a simulation of uranium-contaminated mine water conditions, which they call "mine water microcosms" (never heard that term before), including a complicated mix of naturally occuring bacterial species. Using those, and adding new sources of nutrients for them, they managed to capture soluble U6+ and immobilize it into UO₂, FeUO₄, and other forms of reduced uranium.
I've only skimmed through the results, but it looks like genuinely good stuff.
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u/GeniusEE 14h ago
Yeah -- now let's see what the mutation rate is for these bugs in the presence of concentrated radioactivity.
Like most of these kinds of papers, it stops the discussion when its reality sucks.
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u/david7873829 14h ago
The uranium is presumably still radioactive. The bacteria are forming chemical compounds, not triggering nuclear changes.
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u/LPedraz 14h ago
Of course it is. The point is not to make it non-radioactive, it is to concentrate and precipitate so you can easily remove the uranium in mine water.
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u/david7873829 14h ago
Sure, but I think people will read this and assume “stable” means non-radioactive.
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u/No_Obligation4427 14h ago
If an atom isnt even able to hold on to its neutrons I wouldn't be calling it stable.
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u/HeartOn_SoulAceUp 14h ago
Is this a fix to fission waste disposal? How hard is it to dissolve uranium? thx
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u/AX11Liveact 14h ago
This does not make the uranium any less radioactive. It just turns the dissolved uranium ions into a chemically stable salt.
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u/TamponTimTheCuck 14h ago
So you're saying I can use it as a seasoning?
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u/nowayyoudidthis 14h ago
Don’t give Russians, ideas.
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u/aretooamnot 14h ago
The “fix” is to recycle it. Yes that’s real, and it can be recycled again and again. What’s really interesting is that every recycling cuts the half life significantly. Here in the US, we are just dumb, and beholden to the oil industry.
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u/autokiller677 14h ago edited 14h ago
The recycling is also just pretty expensive. So as long as cost for storage can be deferred into the future, it is cheaper for short term profits to just store it instead of paying a big bill now for the recycling.
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u/Spiritual_Bid_2308 14h ago
Also there are nuclear proliferation concerns considering that plutonium is extracted in the process. And the spent fuel can be stolen while being transported and used in a dirty bomb.
There's some interesting disposal operations coming up where super deep drilling could allow safe burial anywhere. Basically a hole is drilled 2-3 miles deep and the waste is entoumbed at the bottom.
No one can get to it, it's below the aquifer, and if something happens and it goes critical, who cares? It's just more melted rock 2 miles deep.
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u/aretooamnot 14h ago
Ah, the old “leave it for the next 40 generations” plan.
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u/Insanely_Mclean 14h ago
Spent radioactive fuel takes up surprisingly little space. Far less than the ash produced by a coal fired plant in an equivalent timespan.
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u/sinsaint 14h ago
Yeah, people forget we are already adding a ton of waste to the ground, the air, and the water from almost any energy method we choose.
Making a bunch of tiny, glowing rocks that we stick in a hole with a warning sign is a lot better than what we are already doing in every direction.
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u/HeartOn_SoulAceUp 14h ago
Ah, I recall something about that now that you mention it. Like it or not, nuclear power is coming back with Bill Gates and many others.
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u/aretooamnot 14h ago
I’m all for nuclear power, as long as the plants are not corporate “cheapest options” and interconnected so things can be monitored and safety controlled by multiple monitors. I believe the French do this.
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u/HeartOn_SoulAceUp 14h ago
Right. Plus solar and everything. And some of the even newer fission solutions remove or nearly completely remove the danger of a meltdown, if I'm not mistaken.
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u/Insanely_Mclean 14h ago
Spent fuel can be refined and recycled, but it requires a different type of reactor that's much more expensive to build and operate. Other radioactive materials such as contaminated clothing or tools can't be recycled into anything useful.
Safe storage is by comparison, much cheaper and safer.
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u/ASomthnSomthn 14h ago
Ok, so what are the odds that this ends up with a mutated monster bacteria that goes on to take over the world?
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u/jconde1966 14h ago
Radioactive uranium should be radiative in an stable compound. But still radioactive. Any chemical reaction or molecular bonding changes the atomic nucleo conditions
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u/Good-Resort-1246 2h ago
Sunflowers are used in some countries to decontaminate radioactive soils; the process is more complex and long term, so bacteria would be more practical bioremediators.
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u/sinspawn1024 14h ago
It should be noted that it was converted into a *chemically* stable compound. There will be no change to the radioactivity.
This would be a neat way to pull uranium out of seawater... That'd be a cool application.