Mission

The mission of the Natural and Accelerated Bioremediation Research (NABIR) program is to provide the fundamental science that will serve as the basis for development of cost-effective bioremediation and long-term stewardship of radionuclides and metals in the subsurface at DOE sites. The focus of the program is on strategies leading to long-term immobilization of contaminants in place to reduce the risk to humans and the environment. The NABIR program encompasses both intrinsic bioremediation by naturally occurring microbial communities, as well as accelerated bioremediation through the use of biostimulation (addition of inorganic or organic nutrients). Additional programmatic information is available on the the NABIR homepage.

Scope

The program focuses on in situ bioremediation of heavy metals and radionuclides. Scientific understanding will be gained from fundamental laboratory and field research on biotransformation processes, community dynamics and microbial ecology, biomolecular science and engineering, biogeochemical dynamics, and innovative methods for accelerating and assessing in situ biogeochemical processes. The societal implications and concerns of NABIR are also being explored. A Field Research Center (FRC) has been established at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory that provides the supporting infrastructure to facilitate long-term, interdisciplinary research.

Background

For more than 50 years, the U.S. created a vast network of more than 113 facilities for research, development, and testing of nuclear materials. As a result of these activities, subsurface contamination has been identified at over 7,000 discrete sites across the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) complex. With the end of the Cold War threat, the DOE has shifted its emphasis to remediation, decommissioning, and decontamination of the immense volumes of contaminated groundwater, sediments, and structures at its sites. It is estimated that more than 60% of DOE facilities have groundwater contaminated with metals or radionuclides. More than 50% of all soil and sediments at DOE facilities are contaminated with metal and radionuclides, the contaminants found with the highest frequency in soil at all DOE waste sites. Indeed, while filely all of the contaminants found at industrial sites nationwide can also be found at DOE sites, many of the metals and especially the radionuclides found on DOE sites are unique to those sites. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM), which is responsible for the cleanup, has stated that advances in science and technology are critical for DOE to reduce costs and successfully address these long-term problems. NABIR has the distinction of being the only federal program that funds fundamental research on metal and radionuclide contaminants in the environment. The program’s greatest strength is in focusing talents and expertise from many disciplines to address challenging research questions. The products from NABIR will influence the development of effective bioremediation technologies as well as contribute new knowledge about the function of subsurface ecological systems at the microbiological and geochemical levels. These advances can lead to more effective stewardship as well as to remediation of DOE sites.

Goals

Provide the fundamental science that will serve as the basis for:

• development of cost-effective, in situ bioremediation strategies for radionuclides and metals (and complex mixtures containing radionuclides and metals) in the subsurface at DOE sites;
• understanding intrinsic bioremediation as well as accelerated bioremediation using nutrient amendments to immobilize contaminants in place;
• identification of societal issues associated with bioremediation research, and communication of bioremediation research findings to stakeholders;
• coordination with other DOE research programs (Environmental Management Science Program
Genomes to Life BES Geosciencesand Chemical Sciences, and with DOE customers.

These goals will be accomplished by:

• sponsoring innovative, high quality, mission-relevant research;
• fostering interdisciplinary bioremediation research among microbiologists, geochemists, molecular biologists, hydrologists and environmental engineers;
• encouraging hypothesis-driven, integrative field research at contaminated DOE sites;
• training a new generation of scientists and engineers to support NABIR’s goals;
• developing approaches to trasfer the knowledge acquired from NABIR research to the DOE
Office of Environmental Management for clean up of contaminants at DOE sites.

NABIR Program Coordinator:

Mr. Paul Bayer
Environmental Remediation Sciences Division
Office of Biological and Environmental Research
SC-23.4/Germantown Building
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20585-1290

e-mail: Paul.Bayer@science.doe.gov
Phone: (301) 903-5324
Fax: (301) 903-4154