A Solution That Cannot Be Seen

One of the largest problems for the the U.S. Department of Energy is the hundreds of billions of groundwater contaminated uranium and other toxic chemicals. A solution has been found for this problem, however, in a tiny microorganism too small to be seen by the naked eye. This microorganism, known as Geobacter sulferreducens, passes electrons onto metal in order to get energy from it's food. Humans do this too, except we breathe in oxygen to break down our food. So basically through this process these microorganism cause the hazardous metals in the groundwater to be converted from a dissolved to a solid form. Because of this, the metals fall out of the groundwater. According to Derek Lovley, a microbiologist, it will be easier to extract the metals from the water once they are solid and in a discreet area, rather the dissolved in the water over a widespread area.
Though this is a great solution to the problem, it has not yet been put into effect because Lovley and his colleagues are still in their third year of developing the Geobacter for the project. It is much needed, however, because current solutions are not very productive. Right now the department of energy pumps groundwater to the surface, where it is treated for contaminants, and injected back into the ground. This process usually does not completely remove the contaminants and cannot remove certain contaminants such as uranium. Uranium is a major contaminant because back in the Cold War the United States produced millions of tons of uranium oxide to build nuclear bombs. When mills were shut down, the radioactive waste was left behind. Luckily, geobacter sulferreducens will specialize in removing uranium.