News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Fungi that eats radiation found inside Chernobyl reactor. Parent comment

Re:Fungi that eats radiation found inside Chernobyl reactor by candiodari on Friday February 07, 2020 @08:52PM (#22273174)
Or you could go with a substance that both stops radiation AND extracts the energy, used in every nuclear reactor: water. It's not quite as good as lead but pretty good, and it will heat up while stopping the radiation, then conveniently through convection can transport itself to a point where the energy can get extracted.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Fungi that eats radiation found inside Chernobyl reactor by s_y_n_t_a_x on Monday February 10, 2020 @03:43PM (#22293058)
Water extracts thermal radiation at the infrared wavelength, not the higher energy wavelengths that these fungi eat. (X-ray, and Gamma).

Funny enough, these little critters are actually found in reactor pools.

[ Parent | on HN ]