Bioremediation of

radioactive waste
Presented by:
EL BOUISFI OTHMAN
BEN DRISS FADOUA
BOUHNIEY MOHAMED
EL OUARZI SOUKAINA
 Introduction
• A waste is officially any residue from production, transformation, or utilization processes, any substance,
material, product, or more generally any abandoned staff or staff the owner wants to abandon.

• Radioactive waste are generated from applications of radionuclide in various fields e.g medical, research,
industry, power generation and processes. These activities lead to enhancement of naturally occurring
radioactive materials (NORM).

• Nuclear waste can be defined as garbage that contains radioactive material.

• Radioactive waste can display a serious threat to humanity and the whole environment since it takes quite a
long time to decay.
 Introduction
• There are a many Effects of Radioactive Waste like :
 Transportation issues ;
 Storage issues ;
 Long-term contamination of storage spaces;
 Scavenging ;
 Nuclear accidents ;
 Health effects ;
 Social costs ;
 Effects on nature ;
 Introduction
• The production of nuclear waste in large amounts as well as potential nuclear accidents are a crucial threat to
our environment.

• Small mistakes in the handling of radioactive substances can cause catastrophic outcomes.

• Therefore, we should consider the transition from nuclear to renewable energy sources.

• This transition process is already discussed by many governments, however, it will take quite a long time to
abandon nuclear energy completely.

• In order to avoid nuclear waste and the adverse consequences, we should financially support our best
researchers and work together to make this transition process feasible already in the near future.
 Biological ,chimical,physical background
of radio active waste
Physical background
• A waste with activity concentrations equal to, or less than, clearance
levels is considered non-radioactive. From a physical viewpoint, however,
it is radioactive – although the associated radiological hazards are
negligible.
• Radioactive waste is in part waste like any other which is non-radioactive.
However, radioactive waste may be accompanied by significant levels of
ionising radiation ; hence, it requires not only immobilisation  to prevent
radio nuclides spreading around the biosphere , but also shielding and, in
some cases, remote handling
 Biological ,chimical,physical background
of radio active waste
• Chimical background
• Radioactive waste primarily originates from nuclear fuel production and
reprocessing, nuclear power generation, military weapons development, and
biomedical and industrial activities.
• The largest quantities of radioactive waste, in terms of both radioactivity and
volume, are generated by commercial nuclear power and military nuclear
weapons production industries, and by activities that support these industries,
such as uranium mining and processing. However, radioactive material can also
originate from natural sources
 Biological ,chimical,physical background
of radio active waste
• Chimical background
• Extraction and processing practices that can generate and accumulate
radioactive wastes similar to that of uranium mining are aluminum
and copper mining, titanium ore extraction, and petroleum
production.
• According to EPA reports, the total amount of naturally occurring
radioactive waste that is enhanced by industrial practices number in
excess of 1 billion tons annually. Sometimes the levels of radiation are
relatively low in comparison to the large volume of material t
 Biological ,chimical,physical background
of radio active waste
• Biological background
 Biological ,chimical,physical background
of radio active waste
• Biological background
 Solutions for radioactive waste
• Radioactive waste is rigorously managed according to four principles
aimed at reducing it and protecting people and the environment:
-Limiting waste at the source: short-lived
waste has been divided by three since 1985.

-Selective sorting by type and level of radioactivity.

-Packaging adapted to the nature of the waste in insulated packages
or containers (made of concrete, steel or lead) to avoid any
dissemination of radioactivity.
-Isolation of waste (from transport to storage)
 Solutions for radioactive waste
Waste producers are responsible for :
• Sorting, packaging, storing and transporting their waste to the storage
facility,
• Characterizing it (radiological inventory) before it is taken care of in
the chosen channel,
• The financing of the waste management in an appropriate facility,
 Solutions for radioactive waste
Storage: the long-term management solution
• Because of the natural decay of radioactivity, radioactive waste has the particularity of gradually
decreasing in danger over time. Depending on the waste, this decay can take from a few days to
several hundred thousand years.
• The solution to protect humans and the environment from the danger that waste represents is to
isolate it for the time necessary for this radioactive decay.
• This is why, in addition to storage, a temporary solution, France, like many other countries, has
chosen disposal as a long-term management solution.
 Solutions for radioactive waste
The overall optimization of this management requires mobilization on
all stages, from the production of waste to its storage:
• Study of the possibilities of recycling certain wastes:
-To preserve the scarce resource that is storage
• Development of new treatment-packaging processes:
-To reduce the volume of waste to be stored
 EXEMPLE: BIOREMEDIATION OF URANIUM
CONTAMINATED SOILS AND WASTES
• Uranium is found in the environment in many forms including as
an oxide, organic or inorganic complex
• U(VI) in the form of (UO2)2+ is highly soluble in water, so
represents a high risk in the environment
• This contamination potentially represents an uncontrolled source
of radiation
• uranium metal present in the environment is relatively immobile,
but may be oxidized to uraninite and consequently U(VI)
depending on the redox condition
EXEMPLE: BIOREMEDIATION OF URANIUM
CONTAMINATED SOILS AND WASTES

• that uranium may be taken up into cells due to increased membrane permeability
• intracellular uranium have been of uranyl phosphates in Pseudomonas species
• bioaccumulation of uranium would be a viable technique for bioremediating contaminated land or
water.
 EXEMPLE: BIOREMEDIATION OF URANIUM
CONTAMINATED SOILS AND WASTES

• Biomineralisation refers to the process by which metals precipitate with microbially generated ligands such
as phosphate
• Uranium biomineralisation has been proven using a Citrobacter species
• biomineralisation is often more efficient than chemical precipitation in dilute solutions because the ligands
are concentrated near the cell surface, which provide nucleation foci for precipitation
• challenges may come from the cost of the organic phosphate donor, limiting the economic viability of
biomineralisation as a bioremediation technique
 EXEMPLE: BIOREMEDIATION OF URANIUM
CONTAMINATED SOILS AND WASTES

• In anoxia, bacteria are able to respire different electron acceptors to gain

energy for metabolism.
• Uranium bioreduction has been proposed as a bioremediation technique,
stimulated by adding an electron donor to promote enzymatic reduction of
aqueous U(VI) to insoluble U(IV) ( [UO2](2+) -> Uraninite )
 EXEMPLE: BIOREMEDIATION OF URANIUM
CONTAMINATED SOILS AND WASTES

• Biosorption describes the passive uptake of uranium to the surface of living or dead microbial cells.
• Both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial cell envelopes possess an electronegative charge,
so are able to attract metal cations which sorb to the surface.
• Dead biomass is often a better biosorbent as the effects of metal toxicity are not important.
• A review of microbial biosorption capacity found uranium uptake in bacteria ranged from 45 to 615
mg / g cell dry weight
 EXEMPLE: BIOREMEDIATION OF URANIUM
CONTAMINATED SOILS AND WASTES
In situ bioreduction of U(VI) in the field
( The dounreay nuclear )
- Experiments with enrichment cultures from the Oak Ridge site found that the
inhibition co-efficient for U(VI) was around 100 μM ( this level the effective
yield and growth rate were reduced by 50% )
- Acetate is the most commonly used electron donor in laboratory and field
experiments, followed by ethanol and lactate.
- higher concentrations of bicarbonate (40 mM) were found to lower the rate
of U(VI) reduction in contaminated sediments (High concentrations of
carbonate can stabilize U(VI) in solution therefore preventing it from being
immobilized )
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION