Native Bacteria Used To Clean-Up Uranium Mines

But what is new is using the native bacteria that naturally thrive near uranium deposits. In fact, some scientists think these local bacteria might have been part of the process of depositing the uranium in the ground in the first place. “And the beauty of the approach we’re taking is that the bacteria do this naturally as part of their lifecycle,” Chamberlain says. The way it works is that the bacteria take uranium in its wet form-- where it could contaminate groundwater-- and convert it to a nice, safe crystalline form. Normally, though, this natural process is geologically slow. http://wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/native-bacteria-used-clean-uranium-mines-0