Microorganisms associated with uranium bioremediation in a high-salinity subsurface sediment.

Although stimulation of dissimilatory metal reduction to promote the reductive precipitation of uranium has been shown to successfully remove uranium from some aquifer sediments, the organisms in the family Geobacteraceae that have been found to be associated with metal reduction in previous studies are not known to grow at the high salinities found in some uranium-contaminated groundwaters. Studies with a highly saline uranium-contaminated aquifer sediment demonstrated that the addition of acetate could stimulate the removal of U(VI) from the groundwater. This removal was associated with an enrichment in microorganisms most closely related to Pseudomonas and Desulfosporosinus species.