Fungi lock depleted uranium out of harm's way

[sandbender]

From the New Scientist...

"At twice the density of lead, depleted uranium is added to weapons to give them extra force to penetrate targets. But the complete fallout from exploding missiles is impossible to collect physically. This means that hazardous radioactive uranium-235 in the material, which can cause kidney toxicity and has been linked with nerve damage and lung cancer, can persist in the environment for decades."

"A research team in Scotland has established that common fungi can grow on and chemically lock away the offending uranium. As their hyphal filaments sprawled across fragments of depleted uranium, the tubules gradually became coated in a yellowy mineral.
This, it turned out, locked the uranium into a chemical form inaccessible to biological organisms, and unlikely to dissolve into surface waters."


http://environment.newscientist.com...ut-of-harms-way.html?feedId=online-news_rss20

 

[-Switch-]

From the New Scientist...

"At twice the density of lead, depleted uranium is added to weapons to give them extra force to penetrate targets. But the complete fallout from exploding missiles is impossible to collect physically. This means that hazardous radioactive uranium-235 in the material, which can cause kidney toxicity and has been linked with nerve damage and lung cancer, can persist in the environment for decades."

"A research team in Scotland has established that common fungi can grow on and chemically lock away the offending uranium. As their hyphal filaments sprawled across fragments of depleted uranium, the tubules gradually became coated in a yellowy mineral.
This, it turned out, locked the uranium into a chemical form inaccessible to biological organisms, and unlikely to dissolve into surface waters."


http://environment.newscientist.com...ut-of-harms-way.html?feedId=online-news_rss20

I was of the impression that radioactive uranium persists in the environment for decades anyway - it occurs naturally in the ground. At levels higher than found in depleted-uranium missiles.
Or have I been badly informed?


Interesting info about the fungi though.
I suppose it highlights the idea that if something hazardous occurs naturally - whether it be radioactivity, disease or predatory animals - then something else will occur naturally to counter it.
This subsequently raises the idea of preserving things like traditional bushcraft knowledge and promoting conservation before we lose medicinal information that we are yet to discover.

It's a pity more people don't make more of a fuss about this sort of thing. This fungi may not be terribly important but the ideas it raises and the research it inspires may very well be.

 

[Mike Ameling]

Depleted Uranium has already given off most of the "particles" it can. Giving off those particles is what makes something "radioactive". The more particles it can give off and the rate at which it "radiates" them is how "radioactive" a material is. More particles at a higher rate means that it is more radioactive.

Your computer screen "radiates" particles. So does your keyboard, and even the desk it is setting on - ditto the walls around you and the ground outside. But the rate that they "radiate" particles is so small that they are considered to not be radioactive.

Radium dials on watches and alarm clocks (so that you can see the numbers in the dark) are radioactive. But they have soo few particles to give off, and "radiate" them at such a slow rate, that they are not considered hazardous.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of misconceptions floating around out there about how radioactivity really works, and how dangerous it is. Far more "scare tactics" than reality would indicate or demand. Just look at the Radon scam being foisted on "terrorized" home owners in the last few years - all to make a quick buck.

It is interesting to hear about that fungus growing around the material and sealing it off. It has some ... potential ... and should probably be researched a little more.

Just my humble ramblings to share. Take them as such.

Mikey - yee ol' grumpy blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

p.s. Depleted uranium makes GREAT flint strikers. When I first saw a modern fire steel, I thought it had to be made from depleted uranium - because of how it sparked. But a little research then showed that they are made from Ferro-Cerrium alloys.

 

[gregorach]

The major problem with DU is not its radioactivity, its that it is rather toxic, chemically. It's rather more toxic than lead, which is not something you'd want lying around the environment in tonne quantities of micron-scale particles.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of misconceptions floating around out there about how radioactivity really works, and how dangerous it is.

Indeed there are. But equally, there's a lot of people out there who don't appreciate the important differences between alpha, beta, and gamma radiation, nor how these different forms of radiation affect the body differently depending on whether the exposure is from an internal or external source. I'm perfectly happy to hold quite a strong alpha-emitter in my hands, but I would really make sure to wash my hands before eating lunch, or picking my nose... (Yes, they really do teach you this when you start handling radio-isotopes in the lab.)

Radium is a gamma-emitter, while Uranium 235 is an alpha emitter - completely different things. Gamma will go through lead, but is very unlikely to cause damage except at very high intensities. Alpha will bounce off your skin, but get an alpha-emitter inside you and it will do a lot of damage at fairly low intensities because alpha particles are massive. It was an alpha-emitter that was used to poison Alexander Litvinenko.

 

[gregorach]

There is also a very good post about this on ScienceBlogs.

 

[andy_e]

p.s. Depleted uranium makes GREAT flint strikers. When I first saw a modern fire steel, I thought it had to be made from depleted uranium...

I'm going to ask, I have to , how exactly did you discover this?

 

[Mike Ameling]

I'm going to ask, I have to , how exactly did you discover this?

Well ... um ... err ... aaaahh ... some things should not be told.

Actually, nothing nefarious took place. I do a lot of Living History demonstrations/events. And I shoot Flintlock muzzleloading rifles/muskets. A couple decades ago, somebody came up with the idea to rivet a strip of depleted uranium onto the frizzen of a flintlock musket. When the flint struck along that frizzen, you got an amazing amount of hot sparks. Some sparks would fall all the way down to the ground where you could hear them sizzling on the wet leaves! Yes, they were quickly banned from all the blackpowder muzzleloader shooting competitions. But there still are a few floating around out there. Hunters loved them because of the reliability of getting hot sparks when shooting their gun.

Now, the guys making/selling/promoting them told everybody that they were perfectly safe to handle and use, but most people back then did not even think about the toxic chemicals within it, nor about breathing in small particles of dust when they were using them. And nobody studied it, so nobody knows if anybody had any bad effects.

Have I messed around with some? No. It was not traditional, or historically correct. So I watched others "play", laughed at all the wonder/comotion over them, shook my head and walked away.


Or so the story goes ....



Ah the twisted paths we have followed on our journey through life.

Mikey - yee ol' grumpy blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

 

[andy_e]

ROTFL! Cheers Mike

 

[demographic]

As already mentioned its the fact that the dust is toxic thats the main problem.
Also if I remember right its an alpha emmiter which isn't a problem usually as your skin stops it, problem is that the dust gets into your lungs and although alpla particals don't travel far they do have a far higher relative biological effectiveness (RBE) than beta particals or X or gamma photons so the particals can do a lot of damage in the lungs.

Funny thing is that after years of the MOD claiming that "Its perfectly safe, not harming anyone... Look, I'm feeding it to my kids.. blah blah blah, ad infinitum" that now they are using fungi to mop it up

I'm waiting for the next part of this story "Don't eat the Mushrooms"

In short, you wouldn't catch me pissing about with depleted uranium flintlocks and the closest I have got was using a depleted uranium storage pig to contain Irridium 192 but even then the uranium was covered with something else.