nuclear-news

In amongst spent nuclear fuel rods – a weirdness, perhaps a mutant spider’s web

Could Spider-Man become a reality? Bizarre white cobweb found on nuclear waste that could have come from a ‘mutant’ spider Daily Mail, By TED THORNHILL  6th February 2012 Scientists are investigating a bizarre white cobweb found on nuclear waste – amid fears it could have been made by a ‘mutant’ spider.

In a freakish echo of the Spider-Man comic strip, workers at a U.S nuclear waste facility discovered the growth on uranium last month. The white ‘string-like’ material – never seen before on nuclear waste – was found among thousands of spent fuel assemblies submerged in deep pools. Experts from Savannah River National Laboratory collected a
small sample of the mystery material to run tests.
A report filed by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board – a
federal oversight panel – concluded: ‘The growth, which resembles a
spider web, has yet to be characterised, but may be biological in
nature.’ The report said the initial sample of the growth was too
small to characterise, and that ‘further evaluation still needs to be
completed’.
But the bizarre growth will stoke fears that nuclear fuel can cause
Frankenstein-style mutations.
The webs were found at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a
300-square-mile nuclear clean-up facility owned by the U.S Department
of Energy.
Experts say that any creature inside in the pools of water – which are
intended to protect workers – would have been exposed to the nuclear
fuel.
This raises the prospect of a creature having morphed into a new
species of ‘extremophile’ after being exposed to uranium.
Organisms with a natural resistance to radiation are said to be
‘radioresistant,’ and do exist. Deinococcus radiodurans is one of the
most naturally radioresistant organisms on Earth and has been
genetically engineered so that that it can be used in the treatment of
radioactive waste.
Osman Kemal Kadirolu, a former professor of nuclear engineering at the
University of Istanbul, said: ‘As we know life evolves in most unusual
places. Volcanoes at the mid-Atlantic are thriving with life where the
water temperature is below 0C and pressure is more than 300atm. Or in
hot salt water pools around geysers.
‘The water in the spent fuel pools is maintained at a certain pH and
temperature. If micro organisms enter into the pool they may have a
chance to live.
‘The radiation field near a spent fuel assembly is very large and will
definitely disturb the normal life cycle of the micro-organisms….
The growth was found on fuel stored in a compound with
three-foot-thick concrete walls and pools that ranged from 17 to 30ft
deep.
Racks of nuclear waste are submerged in the water – some containing
highly enriched uranium – from foreign and domestic research reactors.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2097115/Could-Spider-Man-reality-Bizarre-white-cobweb-nuclear-waste-come-mutant-spider.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

February 7, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, USA