These bacteria leave dangerous uranuim 'immobile'

[Marlin]

These bacteria leave dangerous uranuim 'immobile'

http://www.futurity.org/uranium-bacteria-943732/

[SloGlo]

sew... now we've got a bunch of bacteria with u body burden. still got the u.

[Chimera]

Hmmmm . . . so, when the bacteria die, does the uranium become mobile again?  Could the bacteria multiply and gobble up all the uranium in the world and destroy the nuclear generating industry?  Do bacteria defecate?  Do the bacteria have relatives that could "breath" in transuranics and fission fragments?  Inquiring minds want to know these things.   

[SloGlo]

then again, watt level shielding coefficient due these little bugs have? could they breathe the u, we eat them, eliminate the waste, clean up the groundwater thru hour sanitary treatment facilities, n bee a.l.a.r.a.?

[GLW]

do the math,...

in step with current postulations, hypothesis and theories:

non-photosynthesizing bacteria appeared on Earth about 3.5 billion years ago,...

free oxygen was not abundant or perhaps even present on Earth before 2.5 billion years ago,...

uranium concentrations 3.5 billion years ago were,....well you do the math,...they were huge by the current environment,...

assimilating uranium is not a new trick which has to be evolved for bacteria, it's an ancient process locked in the genes needing an environmental trigger to bring it back into dominance,..

the trigger would be the uranium concentrations in the legacy uranium sites,...

it took less than 7 decades for those genes to turn back on and for the bacteria to begin assimilating uranium once again,...

seven decades in geological time ?!?!?!? aka "blink",....

the fiscally responsible answer is not to waste billions of dollars on a half dozen or so researchers trying to propagate strains of bacteria which can assimilate an ever decaying inventory of uranium,....

the fiscally responsible answer is to use the already developed and satisfactory technology to collect, confine and manage the scattered yet ever decaying uranium inventory,...

that way the billions are spent on thousands of real people paying mortgages, health care providers and purchasing food,...

as opposed to half a dozen researchers collecting grants leading to nowhere the earth and it's bacteria have not been before,...

sorta like anti-Star Trek,...

oh snap,...where's my PhD in deductive reasoning,...?   

[HydroDave63]

do the math,...

in step with current postulations, hypothesis and theories:

non-photosynthesizing bacteria appeared on Earth about 3.5 billion years ago,...

free oxygen was not abundant or perhaps even present on Earth before 2.5 billion years ago,...

uranium concentrations 3.5 billion years ago were,....well you do the math,...they were huge by the current environment,...

assimilating uranium is not a new trick which has to be evolved for bacteria, it's an ancient process locked in the genes needing an environmental trigger to bring it back into dominance,..

the trigger would be the uranium concentrations in the legacy uranium sites,...

it took less than 7 decades for those genes to turn back on and for the bacteria to begin assimilating uranium once again,...

{snipped}

Heck, if these researchers can isolate a strain that will "breathe" (per the article) both uranium and iron, these critters will be the new Pixie Dust! Run all the legacy mine tailings with sufficient iron, let the bacteria do the hard work, gather the uranium & iron saturated critters to electromagnets, and volia!  Less waste in the environment, more uranium available for use to make megatons and megawatts! These things could be a miner's best friend! Now if we can just get the buggies to eat gold.... 

[Chimera]

Could we load the bacteria into a missile and send it to Iran?

[GLW]

Heck, if these researchers can isolate a strain that will "breathe" (per the article) both uranium and iron, these critters will be the new Pixie Dust! Run all the legacy mine tailings with sufficient iron, let the bacteria do the hard work, gather the uranium & iron saturated critters to electromagnets, and volia!  Less waste in the environment, more uranium available for use to make megatons and megawatts! These things could be a miner's best friend! Now if we can just get the buggies to eat gold....  

you know,...

that's just the type of progressive thinking that kills blue collar jobs, puts more money in the pockets of the 1%ers, and makes GOBs that know they have it all figured out even grumpier,...

[SloGlo]

wail, hail! just pump the middle critters in two the Colorado groundwater two due there thing n doors will taste like work in a decade oar sew.