Electrified Bacterial Filaments Remove Uranium from Groundwater

From Scientific American.  Found it on Godlike Productions.  Thank you!  Excerpts:

Hair-like filaments called pili enable some bacteria to remove uranium from contaminated groundwater. The discovery, published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could aid in the development of radioactivity clean-up technologies.



Some bacteria, including a species called Geobacter sulfurreducens, are known to get their energy from reducing — or adding electrons to — metals in the environment. When uranium dissolved in groundwater is reduced in this way, the metal becomes much less soluble, reducing the spread of contamination.

Researchers have been trying to find out how the process works. They suspected that the pili might be the answer, but because G. sulfurreducens produces pili only in certain environments, the process has proved tricky to study.
..
Reguera and her team were then able to show that the pili greatly increase the amount of uranium that G. sulfurreducens is able to remove. Without pili, the bacterium reduces uranium within the cell envelope, but this poisons the cell in the process. When pili are present, however, most of the precipitation occurs around the pili, which extend away from the cell. This provides a greater surface area for electron transfer, say the researchers, as well as keeping the radioactive uranium at a safe distance.

I don't mean to hurry you Scientifical types, but we got a little thing happenin' here, and we could use a whole lot of hair like filaments right about now..

Japan Quake: People Living On Reclaimed Land Won't Be For Long..

Freaky, ominous, and "Holy crap!  When will this disaster strike?" footage from CNN Ireport, via Godlike Productions..

Remember, please, when you see the earth tearing, swaying, and water squirting upwards where there was no water previously, that this is real.  This is what a Worst-Case-Scenario looks like before it happens.

"Radioactive Earthquake" Would Be Awesome On ScyFy; Horrifying In Real Life..

If the totality of this experience wasn't intense enough..

Nuclear emergency declared at quake-damaged reactor

Japanese authorities are venting radioactive steam into the air after the earthquake on Friday critically damaged a nuclear reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

The Japanese government on Friday declared a nuclear emergency at Tokyo Electric Power's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station after the reactor's cooling system failed. The government ordered thousands of people living within 6 miles of the plant to evacuate. Early Saturday, it declared a nuclear emergency at a second power plant where a cooling system had also failed.

"It has the potential to be catastrophic," said Robert Alvarez, a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, and a former senior policy adviser to the Energy Secretary during the Clinton administration.

West Coast USA Danger IF Japan Nuclear Reactor Meltdown

Why would the west coast USA be in danger?



The prevailing jet stream winds are blowing from Japan directly across the Pacific ocean to the west coast of the United States. Any airborne radiation would make its way across with the jet stream, reaching the U.S. in approximately 36 hours, depending on the actual speed of the jet.
And:
Update,

Clarification from NHK World News Japan… a second location, Fukushima II, not far from the Fukushima I nuclear power plant, is also experiencing cooling problems. The government’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said equipment failures have made it impossible to cool 3 of the plant’s 4 reactors. (Translation: ‘impossible’ is not a good word).
And:
Update,

Reuters is now reporting that Tokyo Electric Power Company has lost ability to control pressure at some of the reactors at its Fukushima II (Daini) plant nearby the Daiichi power plant (Fukushima I), both suffering from core cooling problems. If battery power at Fukushima II is depleted before AC power is restored, the plant will stop supplying water to the core and the cooling water level in the reactor core will drop.
And:
Update,

Kyodo news reports, “the operator of the two plants in Fukushima Prefecture is set to release pressure in containers housing their reactors under an unprecedented government order, so as to avoid the plants sustaining damage and losing their critical containment function.” …”the action would involve the release of steam that would likely include radioactive materials”

Emergencies at 5 Japanese Nuclear Reactors; Radiation Levels Spike at Most-Affected Site

Radiation inside a Japanese nuclear reactor surged to 1,000 times its normal level after today's 8.9-magnitude earthquake knocked out power to a cooling system, and tsunami floods have hampered efforts to get it restored.

It reportedly was one of five Japanese nuclear reactors that lost cooling ability, prompting a race against the clock to install fixes.

In the worst case, at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant's No. 1 reactor, heat-induced pressure built up inside the crippled reactor, prompting widespread evacuations within a 10 kilometer radius and stoking fears of a potentially catastrophic radioactive event.

Japan Issues Nuclear Evacuation  Video.

High probability Fukushima reactor core melting down-cesium detected UPDATED
THIS could be very bad..  URGENT: Concerns of core partially melting at Fukushima nuke plant

Potential Nuclear Fallout Map

"Radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl accident, 1986"

This disaster now has Global implications.