“Given that they must have evolved to thrive at the highly alkaline lime-kiln site in only a few decades, it is highly likely that similar bacteria will behave in the same way and adapt to living off ISA in and around buried cement-based nuclear waste quite quickly, . . .” Prof. J Lloyd

Humans are very talented at producing hazardous waste, if you hadn’t noticed. But luckily for us, our pals in the bacterial kingdom have been real troopers about helping us dispose of it. Some bacterial strains can purify wastewater, others canturn toxic perchlorate into table salt, and others can straight-up spin poison into gold.

Nuclear waste, however, is one human byproduct that even bacteria won’t touch. But that may soon change, thanks to the discovery of a group of gnarly extremophile species that may actually have the chops to dine on radioactive slops.

Researchers at the University of Manchester happened upon the single-celled extremophiles while studying soil samples from an industrial site in England’s Peak District. While the soil was not radioactive, it was contaminated with dangerously alkaline waste produced by a nearby lime kiln.

The microbes thrived off of the alkaline conditions, and so earned themselves the umbrella term “alkaliphilic microorganisms” in the resulting study, published in The ISME Journal. But the researchers also observed that some species were happy to chow down on isosaccharinic acid (ISA), a very common hazardous substance in nuclear waste containers. Continue reading →