Bugs can solve India's uranium dilemma

Kolkata, April 17: The exploitation of bugs to extract and process uranium from low-grade ores can help India generate fuel for nuclear reactors in a sustaible and eco-friendly way, an expert said here on Friday. India will import 3,000 tonnes of uranium from Cada in the coming five years as per a deal inked between both countries during Prime Minister rendra Modi’s recent visit to the country. “The quantity of uranium which we require is insufficient in India because we have got low grade ores and the quantity of uranium is very low inside that,” Abhilash, a scientist at the tiol Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur, told IANS here. NML is a CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research) institute.

“We need more amount of fuel that’s why we have signed agreements with Australia, Cada and other countries so that we can take uranium and use as fuel. Micro-organisms can solve the problems of uranium extraction from low-grade ores in India,” Abhilash said.

He said that by harnessing micro-organisms to leach uranium (a process called bioleaching) from ores, India can ensure indigenous uranium production to feed the planned nuclear reactors. “We can use our own resources and it is sustaible. We use the bacteria available in the mines,” the scientists said here on the sidelines of a conference here. (IANS)