Biofouling and Thermal Ecology Section, Water & Steam Chemistry Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Facilities, Kalpakkam, 603102, India.
Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, 400094, India.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2018 Jul;25(21):20518-20526. doi: 10.1007/s11356-017-0376-5. Epub 2017 Oct 23.
A spent nuclear fuel (SNF) pool is a key facility for safe management of nuclear waste, where spent nuclear fuel rods are stored in a water pool. The spent fuel rods carry a significant amount of radioactivity; they are either recycled or stored for further processing. Pool water acts as a heat sink as well as a shield against the radiation present in spent/burned fuel rods. The water used in these pools is filtered by an ultra-filtration process which makes certain the purity of water. As the life span of these pools is approximately 20 to 40 years, the maintenance of pure water is a big challenge. A number of researchers have shown the presence of bacterial communities in this ultrapure water. The bacterial types present in SNF pool water is of increasing interest for their potential bioremediation applications for radioactive waste. The present study showed the isolation of six bacterial species in the SNF pool water samples, which had significant radio-tolerance (D value 248 Gy to 2 kGy) and also biofilm-forming capabilities. These strains were also investigated for their heavy metal removal capacity. Maximum biofilm-mediated heavy metal (Co and Ni) removal (up to 3.8 μg/mg of biomass) was observed by three isolates (FPB1, FPB4, and FPB6). The ability of these bacterial isolates to survive in radioactive environments can be of great interest for remediation of radioactive contaminants.
乏核燃料（SNF）水池是安全管理核废料的关键设施，其中储存着用过的核燃料棒。这些用过的燃料棒携带大量的放射性物质；它们要么被回收利用，要么被储存起来进行进一步处理。水池中的水不仅起到了散热器的作用，还能屏蔽燃料棒中存在的辐射。这些水池中使用的水经过超滤过程进行过滤，以确保水的纯度。由于这些水池的使用寿命约为 20 至 40 年，因此保持水的纯净是一项巨大的挑战。许多研究人员已经在这种超纯水中发现了细菌群落的存在。SNF 水池水中存在的细菌类型因其在放射性废物生物修复方面的潜在应用而引起了越来越多的关注。本研究从 SNF 水池水样中分离出了六种具有显著放射性耐受性（D 值为 248 Gy 至 2 kGy）和生物膜形成能力的细菌。这些菌株还被研究了其去除重金属的能力。三种分离株（FPB1、FPB4 和 FPB6）观察到最大的生物膜介导重金属（Co 和 Ni）去除（高达 3.8μg/mg 生物质）。这些细菌分离株在放射性环境中生存的能力可能对放射性污染物的修复具有重要意义。
