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Due to the development and utilization of nuclear energy, the safe disposal of nuclear waste needs to be urgently addressed. In recent years, the utilization of microorganisms’ adsorption capacity to dispose of radioactive waste has received increasing attention. When compared with conventional disposal methods, microbial adsorption exhibits the characteristics of high efficiency, low cost, and no secondary pollution. In the long term, microbial biomass shows significant promise as specific chemical-binding agents. Optimization of biosorption conditions, identification of rare earth element binding sites, and studies on the sorption capacities of immobilized cells provide compelling reasons to consider biosorption for industrial applications in heavy metal removal from solutions. However, the interaction mechanism between microorganisms and radioactive nuclides is very complex. This mini-review briefly provides an overview of the preparation methods, factors affecting the adsorption capacity, and the mechanisms of microbial adsorbents.

A large amount of nuclear waste produced in the process of nuclear energy utilization has always been a key problem to be solved urgently for nuclear safety. At present, “deep geological disposal” is a feasible method and generally accepted by many countries. The oxygen content in the near field environment of the waste container will decrease to anaerobic conditions, and hydrogen will permeation into the internal materials of container for a long time. Hydrogen evolution corrosion may cause a risk of hydrogen embrittlement. The harm of hydrogen embrittlement in metal container is far more severe than predictable uniform corrosion. It is a research hotspot that the microorganisms impact on the corrosion behavior of container materials in the deep geological environment. Microbial corrosion in deep geological environments can be divided into two types: aerobic microbial corrosion and anaerobic microbial corrosion. There is a type of hydrogen consuming microorganism in the natural environment that uses the oxidation of hydrogen as the energy for its life activities. This provides a new approach for us to study reducing the hydrogen embrittlement sensitivity of nuclear waste container materials.