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    Home > Biochemistry News > Plant Extracts News > A kind of seaweed has the function of removing nuclear pollution

    A kind of seaweed has the function of removing nuclear pollution

    • Last Update: 2011-04-01
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
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    According to a report on the website of nature on March 30, American scientists said at the recent annual meeting of the American Chemical Society that a kind of seaweed can separate strontium and calcium from nuclear waste and is expected to become a "cleaner" to eliminate nuclear accident pollution Minna creasy, a materials scientist at Northwestern University, said that this kind of algae, which lives in ordinary fresh water, is called moniliforme, which has an extraordinary ability to clean up the strontium in water and deposit it in the vacuole crystal of subcellular structure The vacuole can "contain" the radioactive isotope strontium 90 Strontium 90 is very dangerous It can penetrate into milk, bone marrow, blood and other body tissues The radiation released can even cause cancer "The half-life of strontium 90 is about 30 years, and even 100 years after leaving the reactor, it can still be a major health hazard," cressi said The properties and atomic size of strontium are very similar to that of calcium It is difficult to separate the two elements in biological process The amount of calcium in reactor waste and accidental spills is 10 billion times that of strontium, so a more efficient method is needed to separate them Keresi's research found that by adding barium to the nuclear waste, C moniliformis can make barium and strontium form crystals The reason is that the vacuole of subcellular structure of C moniliformis is rich in sulfur, while the solubility of barium and strontium in sulfur solution is relatively low, and it is easy to precipitate to form crystals Therefore, by changing the amount of barium in the environment, the algae can absorb more strontium 。 Cressi pointed out that the demand for barium may be very large, and perhaps the process can be improved by changing the sulfur concentration in the environment where the algae live to change the sulfur content in the vacuole So far, kerasi and colleagues have not tested the algae's survival in a radiation environment But because the crystallization process takes place quickly, they survive long enough to remove strontium "Algae precipitate crystals in 30 minutes to an hour, and it's easy to grow," says cressi
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