Distribution and risk assessment of radionuclides released by Fukushima nuclear accident at the northwest Pacific.

In order to understand the impact of Fukushima Nuclear Accident (FNA) on the marine environment, seawater and a composite squid (Ommastrephe bartrami) sample were collected on the monitoring cruise XT01 during June 16-July 4, 2011. The concentration levels of Cesium-134, Cesium-137, Strontium-90, Silver-110 m, Cobalt-58 and Cobalt-60 were measured both for the seawater and squid samples. The elevated activity levels of Cesium-134 and Cesium-137 were found in the sampling area. Cesium-134 and Silver-110 m, which were usually undetectable before FNA, were also found in the squid sample, with the activity levels of 1.65 ± 0.13 Bq/kg-wet and 0.07 ± 0.01 Bq/kg-wet, respectively. The radiological assessment result showed that the radioactive release from the FNA would not have a significant adverse effect on marine biota at the population level.

Scalable economic extracellular synthesis of CdS nanostructured particles by a non-pathogenic thermophile.

We report microbially facilitated synthesis of cadmium sulfide (CdS) nanostructured particles (NP) using anaerobic, metal-reducing Thermoanaerobacter sp. The extracellular CdS crystallites were <10 nm in size with yields of ~3 g/L of growth medium/month with demonstrated reproducibility and scalability up to 24 L. During synthesis, Thermoanaerobacter cultures reduced thiosulfate and sulfite salts to H2S, which reacted with Cd²âº cations to produce thermodynamically favored NP in a single step at 65 °C with catalytic nucleation on the cell surfaces. Photoluminescence (PL) analysis of dry CdS NP revealed an exciton-dominated PL peak at 440 nm, having a narrow full width at half maximum of 10 nm. A PL spectrum of CdS NP produced by dissimilatory sulfur reducing bacteria was dominated by features associated with radiative exciton relaxation at the surface. High reproducibility of CdS NP PL features important for scale-up conditions was confirmed from test tubes to 24 L batches at a small fraction of the manufacturing cost associated with conventional inorganic NP production processes.