Radioactive elements treatment report published

Helping with work on Fukushima power plant

Virotec Global Solutions has released a technical document summarising Virotec’s ability to treat radioactive elements. The document, authored by Dr Lee Fergusson, Virotec’s Chief Executive Officer, presents findings from Virotec projects around the world which have successfully treated a range of radioactive elements, including uranium, strontium, caesium and thorium. The document was produced specifically for use by Virotec’s US partners who are pursuing work with the government of Japan to effectively deal with radioactive soil and water around the disabled Fukushima power plant where high levels of caesium and other radionuclides have been released into the environment.

“A lot of our work related to radioactive elements treatment is still in its infancy,” said Dr Fergusson, “but other work, with radium for example, is reasonably well developed. However, ongoing work at both stages of development indicates that our ViroFlow Technology and ViroMine Technology may have significant roles to play in treating radioactive elements in contaminated solids, liquids and gases.

“Given that some of this evidence has appeared in international, peer-reviewed journals only adds weight to that conclusion.”

One project in Australia has, for example, shown that ViroMine Technology can reduce uranium from 375 parts per million to less than 0.1 parts per million and thorium from 27 parts per million also to less than 0.1 parts per million when treating mine wastewater. A separate project found that ViroMine Technology can reduce uranium from 40.3 parts per million to 0.89 parts per million when treating radioactive mine process water. These results reflect earlier work in the US which found ViroMine Technology reduced uranium from 760 parts per million to just 1.05 parts per million, thorium from 127 parts per million to 0.3 parts per million, and beryllium from 80 parts per million to <0.1 parts per million, with all three radioactive elements being reduced by 99.9%. However, all outcomes were preliminary and require further large-scale proof.

Virotec’s successful work in treating radium-contaminated drinking water in South Carolina, USA, was reported to the market in 2007. As a result of that earlier experience, a paper being published in the Journal of Environmental Quality reports more recent results in Missouri, USA, which showed gross alpha and combined radium-226 and radium-228 concentrations being dramatically reduced in drinking water from 0.955 and 0.66 Bq/L (or 25.8 and 17.84 pCi/L respectively) to below detection limits (0.037 Bq/L or 1.0 pCi/L) when treated with ViroFlow Technology. This finding in Missouri is also published in the new technical document.

In addition to these radioactive elements being effectively treated using Virotec’s technologies, other elements relevant to the Fukushima nuclear disaster are also highlighted in the document, and Virotec intends to continue working with EnviRemed in Japan and other companies to promote the unique treatment properties of its reagents and solutions.

Dr Fergusson concluded by saying that, “for ten years Virotec has been known for its great ability to bind heavy metals and phosphorus and remove them from solution and solids, but this new evidence suggests there is a future potential for us to treat radioactive elements as well. With this information, Virotec is in a position to tackle even more intractable and long-term environmental problems as it continues on its way of improving the environment in a sustainable way while positively impacting the lives of thousands of people who have been affected by high levels of nuclear radiation.”