It had been thought that the presence of cement would result in conditions too alkaline for microbes to grow – it has a pH of around 11, similar to bleach. To see if this was so, Lloyd’s team studied a lime kiln site in the UK’s Peak District to see if microbes could be found growing in conditions similar to those that would be expected in a nuclear disposal site. “We went to see if there was biology there and there was,” says Lloyd. “We found they could grow at pH values you would probably find developing around these cementitious waste forms.”
The radiation levels typically found at nuclear waste dumps don’t seem to pose a problem for bacteria either. “It doesn’t kill them,” says Lloyd. “If anything, it actually stimulates the microbes.”
The words, "what could possibly go wrong ?" do leap to mind, but :
The study found that the way bacteria process waste products means hazardous material is less likely to seep into the environment. Some nuclear waste contains cellulose, which can break down to form isosaccharinic acid (ISA) under alkaline conditions. ISA can form a soluble complex with uranium, helping it to leak out of the waste repository. But bacteria seem to use ISA as a carbon source and degrade it, keeping radionuclides in solid form – which means they stay in place.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23431211-300-radiationeating-bacteria-could-make-nuclear-waste-safer
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