Editorial
Uranium Microbial Bioremediation and Challenges Ahead
| Jincai Ma1 and Guangshu Zhai2* | |
| 1Biosciences and Biotechnology Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA | |
| 2Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and IIHR Hydroscience and Engineering, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA | |
| Corresponding Author : | Guangshu Zhai Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering IIHR Hydroscience and Engineering The University of Iowa Iowa City, IA 52242, USA Tel: +1319-335-5866 E-mail: zhai-guangshu@uiowa.edu |
| Received: September 06, 2012; Accepted: September 08, 2012; Published: September 10, 2012 | |
| Citation: Ma J, Zhai G (2012) Uranium Microbial Bioremediation and Challenges Ahead. J Bioremed Biodeg 3:e125. doi:10.4172/2155-6199.1000e125 | |
| Copyright: © 2012 Ma J, et al. This is an open-a ccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. | |
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Abstract
As a naturally occurring element, the abundance of uranium in the environment is very low. Anthropogenic activities, including fossil fuel combustion, uranium ores mining and enrichment for nuclear weapon manufacturing, and electricity generation in nuclear fueled power plants, has released significant amount of uranium into the environment. As a result, uranium contamination is a worldwide phenomenon. According to the US Department of Energy (DOE), there are about 2, 000,000 acres in 30 states that are contaminated with uranium.
