Bacteria in Former Soviet Mine Eat 95% of Toxic Uranium on a Strict Glycerol Diet

DRESDEN, GERMANY — Deep underground in a former Soviet uranium mine, microscopic bacteria have accomplished what decades of treaties, inspectors, and cleanup budgets could not: they ate the uranium.

Researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf have shown that bacteria living in uranium-contaminated mine water can convert dissolved uranium into a stable compound — removing roughly 95% of the toxic metal within 130 days — provided they are given one simple thing: glycerol.

“These bacteria have been sitting in that water for decades, minding their own business,” said Dr. Anke Neumann, who led the study. “All they needed was a food source. We gave them glycerol, and they essentially said, ‘Finally, someone thought of lunch.’”

The discovery is being hailed as a breakthrough in environmental cleanup, though scientists are quick to note the microbes’ dietary preferences are extremely specific.

The bacteria convert the dissolved uranium into a pentavalent state, which then forms a black precipitate that settles out of the water, safely trapping the radioactive metal. It is, in the words of one researcher, “the world’s most patient cleanup crew, working in shifts that last four months.”

“It’s remarkable,” said Dr. Neumann. “We’ve spent billions on cleanup technologies. Meanwhile, a microbe that’s been there since the Cold War was just waiting for the right appetizer.”

The former Soviet mine, which operated for decades before the Soviet Union collapsed, left behind vast pools of contaminated groundwater. For years, the standard approach was containment, monitoring, and hoping. Now, scientists say, the hope is microbial — and hungry.

The study, published in Nature Communications, has already spawned a cottage industry of speculation about what other contaminated sites might be cleaned by their indigenous microbial populations. Researchers are now testing whether the bacteria can be “upsized” — a process that involves adding more glycerol and, according to one optimistic lab technician, “possibly some jazz music, though that part is not yet peer-reviewed.”

At press time, the bacteria were reportedly unionizing, having realized that any organism capable of removing 95% of a toxic heavy metal has serious negotiating leverage.