The mysterious black fungus from Chernobyl that may eat radiation

Post by rrr_oh_man » Fri, Nov 28, 2025, 2:41 PM UTC

Andrex wrote: post #23

once_inc wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Add in some evolutionary strategies, and you have the recipe for a good sci-fi book: a fungus in Chernobyl rapidly outpaces its competitors due to its ability to absorb radiation. Each iteration grows and reproduces faster, until it is so blindingingly fast that it begins to outpace the output the fuel rods produce. The world rejoices as this fungus is perfect for cleaning up nuclear waste products, until we realize…

This lines up with a book idea I've had for like 20 years. Crazy! Don't wait to write sci-fi I suppose! Life may catch up, haha.

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Nov 28, 2025, 2:54 PM UTC

credit_guy wrote: post #29

reliablereason wrote: post #3

I did some basic calculations to compare the energy in the radiation vs the energy required to grow 10% extra. - If we assume they are working in the reactor we get radiation levels of something like 1 mGy/hour. But we can prop this up to mabye 500 mGy/hour since i dont know how they grew their culture - That leads to 0.05 J of extra energy per gram of microbial bio material. - Energy needed to grow 1g of microbial b…

I also did some back of the envelope calculations. Here's what I got: the radiation level just 1 meter away from the "elephant foot" (the solidified molten core), at the time of the accident was about 1000 times lower than the solar irradiation. At 100 meters it was 10 million times lower (because of the inverse square law). Now, the radiation from the elephant foot has decreased significantly. I couldn't find a rece…

Post by Cthulhu_ » Fri, Nov 28, 2025, 3:01 PM UTC

rrr_oh_man wrote: post #41

Andrex wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This lines up with a book idea I've had for like 20 years. Crazy! Don't wait to write sci-fi I suppose! Life may catch up, haha.

Idea is nothing, execution is everything. Just write it if you want to.

Post by robocat » Fri, Nov 28, 2025, 3:08 PM UTC

Joel_Mckay wrote: post #36

once_inc wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Add in some evolutionary strategies, and you have the recipe for a good sci-fi book: a fungus in Chernobyl rapidly outpaces its competitors due to its ability to absorb radiation. Each iteration grows and reproduces faster, until it is so blindingingly fast that it begins to outpace the output the fuel rods produce. The world rejoices as this fungus is perfect for cleaning up nuclear waste products, until we realize…

Some fungi are already the largest organisms on earth at >200 km^2 Armillaria ostoyae ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armillaria_ostoyae ) Consider when organisms must pass, that these ancient fungi likely still consume the host... Thus, on a 8000 year timescale most fungi doesn't necessarily need to pursue food that naturally dies in around a century. Yeasts are already sharing your body along with numerous other or…

  rivals the aspen grove "Pando" as the known organism with the highest living biomass and perhaps rivalled by a colony of Posidonia australis on the Australian seabed that measures 200 square kilometres (edited)

Post by gus_massa » Fri, Nov 28, 2025, 3:11 PM UTC

once_inc wrote: post #10

reliablereason wrote: post #3

I did some basic calculations to compare the energy in the radiation vs the energy required to grow 10% extra. - If we assume they are working in the reactor we get radiation levels of something like 1 mGy/hour. But we can prop this up to mabye 500 mGy/hour since i dont know how they grew their culture - That leads to 0.05 J of extra energy per gram of microbial bio material. - Energy needed to grow 1g of microbial b…

Add in some evolutionary strategies, and you have the recipe for a good sci-fi book: a fungus in Chernobyl rapidly outpaces its competitors due to its ability to absorb radiation. Each iteration grows and reproduces faster, until it is so blindingingly fast that it begins to outpace the output the fuel rods produce. The world rejoices as this fungus is perfect for cleaning up nuclear waste products, until we realize…