Radionuclide Biological Remediation Resource Guide

L.W. Jensen¹; V.M. Ibeanusi²; and D.A. Grab³ (¹US Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5; ²Spelman College; ³University of California, Berkeley)

When radiation remediation continues to rely narrowly on excavation, the result will continue to be digging too much, shipping too much, disposing of too much. Biological methods should be a welcome alternative because they can be focused on the offending radionuclide, they are much less expensive and they are much less disruptive to commercial and residential properties and to the environment in general. They have proven themselves with chemical contaminants and are beginning to prove themselves with radionuclides. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund program in Region 5 has developed a bibliographic reference of technical abstracts dealing with phytoremediation (plants), bioremediation (bacteria) and other means such as shellfish and microbial mats to remove and concentrate contaminating radionuclides. This document is cross-referenced by media (soil, groundwater, surface water), by radionuclide and by technology type (phytotechnology, bioremediation, other). Full abstracts are provided along with authors, journal citation and website citation. The authors emphasize there are many potential research opportunities for investigating biological remediation of radionuclide contamination. The document (EPA 905-B-04-001) can be found at http://www.epa.gov/region5superfund; http://www.epa.gov/tio; http://clu-in.org; and cfpub.epa.gov/si.

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