Ambient office  = 71 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 78 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 66 nanosieverts per hour

Caultiflower from Central Market = 134 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 75 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 58 nanosieverts per hour

        There are many bodies of water in the world that are polluted with radioactive materials. Ground water may penetrate underground repositories and spread radioactive materials far beyond the storage facility. There are ways to deal with radioactive materials dissolved in water but there is no widespread cheap technique. Research into the interaction of radioactive waste in liquids and bacteria have been researched since the 1980s.
       In 2014, researchers at the University of Manchester in the U.K. announced that they had identified that bacteria that can affect toxic waste dissolved in water. These bacteria have been found in pure soil samples before but in Manchester, they found that such bacteria could survive in the harsh conditions of nuclear waste disposal sites.
        When intermediate level nuclear waste is encased in concrete and stored underground, ground water will eventually permeate the concreate and become very alkaline. This chemical change leads to a series of chemical reactions which breakdown cellulosic materials present in the waste.
        A product of these reactions is isosaccharinic acid (ISA) which can bind with a variety of radionuclides and make them more soluble. This means that radioactive materials could migrate out of the storage facility and threaten bodies of water in the environment that are used for agriculture and as a source of drinking water.
       The researchers have discovered that there are bacteria classified as “extremophile” which are able to thrive in a toxic soup containing isosaccharinic acid (ISA). Their research continues on what effect such bacteria might have on radioactive materials in underground storage facilities.
       Now researchers at the A.N. Frumkin Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry in Moscow and the Russian Academy of Sciences Research Center for Biotechnology have discovered microorganisms that may be useful in protecting the environment from radioactive materials in bodies of water.
       The Russian research team was studying the microbiology of the ground water at the Seversky deep radiation burial site in Seversk which is located in the Tomsk region of south-central Siberia. The Siberian Chemical Combine supplies and reprocesses low enriched uranium for nuclear fuel. It stores liquid radioactive waste at the Seversky burial site.
       What the research team found was that there were bacteria in the water that were able to chemically lock radionuclide ions into solid forms so that they would not be able to contaminate the surrounding environment. The researchers took the bacteria into the laboratory and explored the best conditions that would allow the bacteria to be the most effective.
       They say that the results of their research could be the first step in creating a “biogeochemical barrier” for radionuclides for use in deep burial sites which contain liquid radioactive wastes. Scientists around the globe point out that microbial processes must be considered with respect to projects intended to bury and store nuclear waste which takes millions or even billions of years to decay to a safe level.
       The Manchester research team began with an exploration of extremophile bacteria in a non-radioactive environment. Now the Russians have found bacteria in radioactive liquids that actually immobilize radionuclides. Hopefully, these bacteria can be used to make the storage of nuclear wastes underground much safer.

Ambient office  = 92 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 99 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 104 nanosieverts per hour

Pineapple from Central Market = 126 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 98 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 88 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office  = 121 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 111 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 108 nanosieverts per hour

Bartlett pear from Central Market = 141 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 83 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 68 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office  = 67 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 151 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 143 nanosieverts per hour

Crimini mushroom from Central Market = 106 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 64 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 59 nanosieverts per hour

Cod – Caught in USA = 81 nanosieverts per hour

       I have often blogged about the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State which is one of the most radioactively contaminated sites on Earth due to the nuclear weapons program that spent decades creating and dumping radioactive materials with little regard to safety. There are areas in many countries that are contaminated with radioactive materials from a variety of causes. Today, I am going to blog about such areas in the country of Spain.
       There are six zones in Spain that are listed with the Nuclear Security Council (NSC) as containing radioactive materials. Although the government is fully aware of these sites, none are official listed as being contaminated because Spain has not yet generated a formal list of sites affected by leaks of radioactive materials. There was a royal decree to draft such a list but that was ten years ago and the list still does not exist.
       The NSC says that the existing Nuclear Energy Law will have to be amended before the inventory of contaminated sites can be generated. Since 2008, there has been no action on the part of the Spanish government. The NSC says that these sites do exist but they are not recognized as officially contaminated sites.
       At Palomares in southeastern Spain, a U.S. B-52 bomber collided with a refueling plane in January of 1966. As a result of the midair collision, the B-52 dropped four hydrogen bombs. Fortunately, the bombs did not explode but they did strew plutonium across the area.
        The Juan Vigón National Nuclear Energy Center is located on the campus of Madrid’s university. In Novermber of 1970, about nine gallons of highly radioactive liquid from a spent nuclear fuel reprocessing facility at the Energy Center leaked into the sewer system and then flowed into the Manzanares river. It continued on to the Jarama River, the connected irrigation canal and finally reached the Tagus River.
       The fascist regime of Franco was working on an atomic bomb and they kept the leak secret. They did drain the Jarama irrigation canal and collect the contaminated soil lining the canal which contained cesium-137 and strontium-90. The sludge from the canal was ultimately buried in eight ditches that had been dug beside the canal. There are no warning signs where the waste is buried.
       There are two more contaminated sites along the Tinto River which runs through the Huelva Province in southwestern Spain. There is one site in the marshes of Mendana located on the estuary of the Tinto River. It contains large amounts of cesium-137. The other spot is located where the Tinto River joins the Odiel river. This site contains high levels of radium-226.
      El Hondon is a rural area in Cartegena which is in southeastern Spain. A phosphate sludge containing uranium-238 can be found there. The Ebro reservoir is located in northeastern Spain near the town of Flix in the provice of Catalonia. A phosphate sludge containing uranium-238 was also present there but the CSN claims that the sludge has already been removed.
       The CSN recently issued a press release that said that the Ecological Transition Ministry was working on making the legal changes that were required before an official list of sites in Spain contaminated with radioactive materials could be drawn up. The release also said that “There are several sites showing radioactivity originating from human activity. It is estimated that there is no significant radiological risk.” Which is what governmental bodies usually say when confronted with evidence of radioactive contamination.
       Environmental groups in Spain are protesting the lack of government action on the contaminated sites. They recently demonstrated at the site of one of the ditches along the Jarama irrigation canal. They said: “A mere visual inspection of the site clearly shows how easy it is to access. This lack of oversight has meant that, over the years, some of the earth may have been moved around, causing a possible risk of radioactive contamination to the local population. Right now there is no guarantee whatsoever that this toxic waste hasn’t been moved and scattered. In fact, some of the sites are in the same spots as infrastructure such as the A-4 bypass, roads and transmission towers.”