Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 September 2012
Epifluorescence microscopy was utilized to enumerate halophilic bacterialpopulations in two studies involving inoculated, actual radioactivewaste/brine mixtures and pure brine solutions. The studies include aninitial set of experiments designed to elucidate potential transformationsof actinide-containing wastes under salt-repository conditions, includingmicrobially mediated changes.
The first study included periodic enumeration of bacterial populations of amixed inoculum initially added to a collection of test containers. Thecontents of the test containers are the different types of actualradioactive waste that could potentially be stored in nuclear wasterepositories in a salt environment. The transuranic waste was generated frommaterials used in actinide laboratory research. The results show that cellnumbers decreased with time. Sorption of the bacteria to solid surfaces inthe test system is discussed as a possible mechanism for the decrease incell numbers.
The second study was designed to determine radiological and/or chemicaleffects of 239Pu, 243Am, 237Np, 232Th and 238U on the growth of pure and mixedanaerobic, denitrifying bacterial cultures in brine media. Pu, Am, and Npisotopes at concentrations of ≤1×10–5M, ≤5×10–6M and ≤5×10-4 Mrespectively, and Th and U isotopes at concentrations of ≤4×10-3M were tested in these media. The results indicate that high actinideconcentrations affected both the bacterial growth rate and morphology.However, relatively minor effects from Am were observed at all testedconcentrations with the pure culture.