BioRadBase: A database for bioremediation of radioactive waste

Abstract

Radioactive waste from different sectors such as nuclear energy, health care and food has become a discernible part of our environment. Several dumping methods are in routine practice to dispose radioactive wastes. Huge chemical and energy input in various skillful physico-chemical methods has limited their use while biological methods exploring the potential of micro-organisms could be a promising and eco-friendly approach to remediate radioactive pollutants. Bio-transformation, bio-accumulation and bio-sorption are key processes that have been tried for radionuclide remediation. BioRaDBase is the first database dedicated to micro-organisms which have been explored or engineered to remediate radioactive waste from the environment. The database serves as a comprehensive knowledgebase to search bacteria and fungi which have the ability to transform radioactive waste. This database would be a useful tool for the development of new bio-remediation technologies to clean up radioactive waste from the environment. The information in database has been managed under five classes, that is, type of radioactive waste, micro-organisms, genus listing, literature and waste management. The entries are also linked to external databases such as National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), providing wide background information. Beside these, under the news section of the database, a user can connect to dedicated organizations working on issues like environmental protection, nuclear energy and radionuclide dumping. BioRaDBase can be accessed at http://biorad.igib.res.in.

Keywords: Bioremediation of radioactive waste (BioRaDBase), radionuclides, biotransformation, biocrystallization, radioisotope, nuclear waste