Comparison of radionuclide association of fungi under laboratory and natural conditions

The varied use of different radionuclides in medicine, industry and research and their disposal has repeat-edly led to the release of these radionuclides into the environment. Through leaching and migration, the anthropogenic released radionuclides can reach the groundwater, endangering the environment, animals and humans. However, the mobility and thus the migration behavior of radionuclides in the soil are influ-enced by the microorganisms living there.
Fungi play an important role in the microbial community of soil and can therefore have a major influence on radionuclide mobility, for example through sorption, accumulation or reduction processes. Therefore, the aim of this research is to investigate the influence of fungi on radionuclide migration in soil by using column and field experiments and to determine the potential of fungi for radiation protection precaution-ary methods or even remediation methods.
For the assessment of the suitability of fungi the first step is to investigate the molecular interactions with radionuclides under laboratory conditions to identify dominant interaction processes. Therefore binding experiments with different media were performed and the molecular binding form was investigated with time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy. In the next step, column experiments were carried out with soil and under natural conditions, in which the retention capacity of the fungi for radionuclide migration in the soil was investigated.
The experiments so far showed that the biochemistry of the fungi determines the metal interaction and not the surrounding environment. Furthermore, it was clearly demonstrated by column experiments, that fungi are able to retain radionuclides significantly.