Radioactive spider-webs found in nuclear facility?
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The Daily Mail reports that a strange spider-web like substance has been found on nuclear waste containers stored under water at the Savannah River Site nuclear facility. The idea of some radioactive biological substance brings to mind Peter Parker who gained his super spider abilities by being bitten by a radioactive spider.
Experts say that any creature inside in the pools of water – which are intended to protect workers – would have been exposed to the nuclear fuel.
This raises the prospect of a creature having morphed into a new species of ‘extremophile’ after being exposed to uranium.
Organisms with a natural resistance to radiation are said to be ‘radioresistant,’ and do exist. Deinococcus radiodurans is one of the most naturally radioresistant organisms on Earth and has been genetically engineered so that that it can be used in the treatment of radioactive waste.
Tests are being run on the substance and a report only states that the it has yet to be characterised, but “may be biological in nature.”
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