Radioactive contamination of ground water can be contained with green sludge.

Bo Christiansen, a geochemist at the University of Copenhagen, specialised in "green rust", a paricular kind of green goop occuring naturally in oxygen-poor water, has recently published an article where he describes that this material is able to to capture and contain neptunium - a finding that may have great influence on how and where disposing of radioactive waste.

 

Green rust was considered to be a problem but now its beneficial properties were discoverd and it seems to be effective not only against neptunium but against almost all kinds of pollution. The experiments to prove the ability of green rust to contain neptunium have been conducted partly at SKB Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management`s full scale pilot research facility at Okskarshamn/ Sweden and also in part at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany.

 

If the iron-lined copper canisters wherein radioactive waste ist usually disposed of, are covered with green rust, the atomic waste will be secure even when the canisters are no longer surrounded by water. It is the surprising result of the experiments that nature can help to clean itself even when the pollution will be as servere as with neptunium, says Bo Christiansen, who expects the results to be considered and applied with future storage of radioactive waste.

 

Source: University of Copenhagen