O.Y. Bitchaeva, Russian National Centre for Biotechnology for Nuclear & Industrial Power, Russia
N.N. Egorov,Vice-Minister of Ministry for Atomic Energy of the Russian Federation, Russia
H. Brunner, Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology, Germany
G.E. Collard, Centre d'Etudes Nucleaires, Belgium
J. Diaz Puente, Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas, Medioambientales y Technologicas, Spain
J. Duarte, INETI-IBQTA-DB-Unidade de Bioengenharia e Bioprocessos, Portugal
C. Duggleby, Westlakes Research Insitute, United Kingdom
N. McKenzie, Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom
C. Sahut, Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique, Centre d'Etudes de Cadarache, France
B. Besnainou, Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique, Centre d'Etudes de Cadarache, France
A.J. Francis, Brookhaven National Laboratory, NY, USA
G.W. Page, State University of New York at Buffalo, NY, USA
R.C. Ragaini, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, USA
J.H. Wolfram, Idaho National Engineering and Environmenral Laboratory, ID, USA

As a result of intensive scientific research and major discoveries over the past four decades, biotechnology has emerged as one of the most promising and crucial technologies for sustainable development in the next century. The merging of classical and modern biotechnological methods has enabled the creation of new products and highly competitive processes in a large number of activities and has opened up new possibilities in different sectors of national economies. Current experience of where biotechnology has been used for waste management and site restoration in the nuclear sector, in terms of efficiency, economics, ecological and social acceptability and business opportunities, justify the advantage of this approach. Nowadays the environmental policies of Japan, USA, EU and Russia give biotechnology a high priority and offer a favourable climate for its wide application. These countries, along with several others, attempt to foster the application of biotechnology in the waste management and site restoration programmes of the nuclear sector. However the programmes of the other countries with a nuclear industry still do not pay sufficient attention to this promising direction. For the nuclear sector to benefit world-wide from the advantages of biotechnology, an international consensus is needed with long-term technological strategies, unifying national efforts, stimulating concerted action and providing a basis for the necessary research and development programmes for industrial exploitation. With this in mind, the sharing of knowledge, along with in-depth multifaceted analyses of the problems, appear to be crucial components of any such programmes. This paper may be regarded as an approach to such an analysis carried out by an international team of specialists and experts, where the basic information was provided in the International Programme on "Advanced Technologies for Management and Disposal of Wastes and Site Restoration". This Programme was initiated by the Russian CBNIP several years ago and is currently being developed under "ECOPROGRESS INTERNATIONAL", an association represented by most of the co-authors of this paper.

Five decades of the nuclear industry, along with the ending of the cold war, has resulted in a daunting legacy, comprising huge quantities of waste, spent nuclear material and environmental contamination of monumental proportions. Many programmes are now underway to manage and remediate this legacy, using a range of technologies. However most of these solutions are inadequate to meet the complexity of technological, economic, social and policy criteria. Newer, more relevant approaches are required, and with this in mind, biotechnology, based on the potential of living organisms and their cellular, subcellular or molecular components to create products and processes for required practical and industrial purposes, offers a promising alternative.

Biotechnology for waste management and site restoration is now recognised as a rapidly expanding field ^[1-7]. A list of biotechnological methods pertinent to waste management and site restoration presents hundreds of different solutions involving soil, sediment and sludge decontamination through in-situ biodegradation, bioventing, constructed wetlands, lagoons (aerobic/anaerobic), ex-situ composting, landfarming, slurry phase biotreatment, bioremediation by stimulation of indigenous micro-organisms to degrade organic contaminants, biosorptive techniques, and combinations of biological and physico-chemical methods. Biotechnological implementations for the treatment of contaminated groundwater, surface water and leachates include in-situ co-metabolic treatment, nitrate and oxygen enhancement, and ex-situ biotreatment in bioreactors. Decontamination of gaseous emissions can be achieved by biofiltration, biosorptive techniques, use of bioproducts of microbial origin and products of microbial synthesis. Waste management in the nuclear sector includes biotreatment of used processing oils and scintillants, remediation of uranium-containing acid mine water, metal recovery and decontamination using micro-organisms, accumulation and recovery of heavy metals and radionuclides by extracting elements from liquid waste streams with biosorbents, biodegradation of laundry wastes from nuclear installations and the microbial decomposition of cellulosic waste.

With regard to the nuclear industry, biotechnology is unique in (i) its ability to remove and degrade organic compounds that would interfere with long term storage, (ii) its high capacity of sorption for elements, (iii) the high degree of decontamination (DF more than 10³), (iv) its efficiency of operation with a broad spectrum of target compounds under a wide range of conditions, and (v) the reduction in mass of liquid and solid wastes with minimal generation of by-products. Some of the main advantages of this technology are economy, low cost (up to 3-10 times less than the cost of standard methods); energy- and resource-saving; environmental soundness; social acceptability; the availability of capital investment; the ability to treat large volumes including mixed hazardous waste (organic and inorganic), to denitrify acidic, nitrate-containing waste and to degrade metal-chelating organic acids. Being a system component rather than a total solution, biotechnology, in combination with chemical, physico-chemical and other well-proved methods is also unique by providing a more efficient solution with considerable savings in clean-up and disposal costs. The most promising trends in this technology are with the bioseparation and bioconcentration of elements, the biodegradation of toxic organic compounds, the reduction in mass of organic degradable solid wastes and the use of bio- and phyto-sorbents based on mycelial cells, microbial and bacterial mass, and secondary wastes from the timber and other industries ^[1-7] .

Over the last two decades the potential of biotechnology has expanded as a result of new gene-engineering developments, using degradative plasmids (D-plasmids) and recombinant DNA technology, to provide rapid, precise and safe introduction or amplification of desirable characteristics into existing biological systems to a greater extent than was previously possible. But the moral, ethical and legal issues of its implementation for site restoration and waste management, especially in the nuclear industry, need to be explicitly agreed.

Biotechnological research and development studies for radioactive waste management and site restoration are still mainly at the laboratory scale in many countries. However the trend is towards extending this to industrial and field-scale implementations, using bioremediation to clean up contaminated sites of civilian and military origin in the USA, biosorbents in a pilot plant in the Czech Republic and biodecomposition of organic wastes at two plants in Finland ^{(6, 8, 9)} In this paper we report on the use of biotechnological processes is these fields from the following countries: the USA, European Union (Belgium, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom) and Russia.

In the US., most of the research and development is directed towards the cleanup of soil and groundwater contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons, chlorinated volatile organic solvents (CVOS), and metals/radionuclides. Biotechnological processes are used to clean up toxic chemical spills and to dispose of chemical wastes and leaks from underground storage tanks. In-situ bioremediation has been successfully used to treat soil and groundwater contaminated with fuel hydrocarbons and chlorinated hydrocarbons, to clean up subsurface spills of petroleum hydrocarbons (including refinery wastes), crude oil, fuels, and other readily biodegraded compounds, such as phenols, cresols, acetone, and cellulosic wastes.For bioremediation near the surface, infiltration galleries have been used to introduce the electron acceptors and the nutrients ^{[1,4,7,10,12]}.

Biotechnology research and development programmes dealing with radioactive contaminants are supported by the US Department of Energy, the Department of Defense and the Environmental Protection Agency. Most of the studies deal with the following technologies:

1. in-situ, on-site, above-ground treatment, using natural attenuation processes;
2. binding of radionuclides to cell surfaces and polymers;
3. biosorbent technology for the selective removal of uranium or other elements at low concentrations in surface and groundwater, including biosorbents immobilised in permeable beads;
4. flow-through bioreactors for waste fixation and volume reduction (ppm levels reduced to ppb levels);
5. reduction of hexavalent uranium to the tetravalent state in axenic cultures of dissimilatory iron-reducing, fermentative, and sulphate-reducing bacteria;
6. removal of soluble non-toxic metals such as Ca, K, Mg, Mn²⁺, Na, and Fe²⁺ ;
7. enrichment and stabilisation of Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, U and Zn;
8. reduction of the overall volume and mass of uranium- and toxic-metal contaminated sediment and sludge by means of anaerobic Clostridium sp.;
9. removal of uranium and toxic metals from wastes or contaminated materials or soils by extracting with thecomplexing agent, citric acid; and
10. bioprocessing of wastes that contain volatile metal or radionuclide contaminants, along with hazardous organic liquids without the escape of toxic non-combustible materials, such as aqueous solutions containing volatile organics that are not readily incinerated due to the water content. These include diagnostic hospital liquid wastes, out-dated solvent wastes and biomedical research wastes, which contain methanol, ethanol, acetonitrile, acetic acid, toluene, xylenes, phenol, and pseudocumene.

The breakthrough in this work came with the isolation of a micro-organism able to tolerate high concentrations of many organic solvents, to live and grow in biphasic mixtures, and to still degrade aromatic compounds, e.g., toluene, xylene, catechol. This led to the design of a process using this organism as the biocatalyst for the disposal of aromatic compounds that were the toxic component of wastes containing radionuclides, such as tritium and plutonium ^{[1,4,6,7,10-12]}.

In Belgium biotechnological research and development is supported by a "National Incentive Programme for Fundamental Research in Life Sciences", by the "Interuniversitary Poles of Attraction, IPA" and by the Flanders regional programme "Vlaams Actieprogramma Biotechnologie". The main studies on site restoration and waste management related to nuclear sector are supported by the EC. They include the application of fertilisers, organic and aluminosilicate amendments, ammonium-ferric-hexacyano-ferrate (AFCF) as a caesium-binding agent; the use of physical barriers (straw mulching) to prevent plant contamination by rain splash and soil resuspension; the study of microbiological mobilisation of radionuclides in atmospheric fallouts and in natural ecosystems; the study of bioprecipitation, solubilisation, complexation of elements; the biodegradation of xenobiotics and bitumen; microbial corrosion; biosensors; the genetics of bacterial adaptation to stress conditions and the mobilisation of radionuclides from fuel matrixes in the zone of the Chernobyl accident. In practice, chemical processes are still used in the decontamination and treatment processes of waste management. However the perspectives of biotechnology are being given favourable consideration in the framework of the international collaboration, ECOPROGRESS INTERNATIONAL ^[1,13,14].

In France, biotechnological research and development is supported by a series of national programmes: BioAvenir, Aliment 2000, by programmes of CEA ("Protein 2000") and by CNRS ("IMABIO"). In CEA, the main research on biotechnology for waste management and site restoration in the nuclear sector includes the biodegradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), solvents (methanol, acetone, toluene, etc.) and pentachlorophenols by filamentous fungi (Rhyzopus, Cunninghamella, Phanaerochete); the bioreduction of nitrates and oxides of heavy metals; the bioleaching of mineral ores by Thiobacillus ferrooxidans and of radionuclides (Cs, Sr) from Chernobyl soils (RESSAC Programme); the biodecontamination of soils contaminated by heavy metals; the biosorption of heavy metals (Cd, Zn, Ni, Ag, Cr, U) by industrial filamentous fungi (Rhyzopus, Mucor, Aspergillus, Penicillium), the mechanisms of transfer of radionuclides in soils, the biocorrosion of concrete, the biodegradation of bitumens, the biomigration of radionuclides in repositories and the use of membrane bioreactors. In the last decade, the bioremediation of contaminated sites has increased in importance. Case studies include, among others, laboratory investigations into the applicability of biotechnological processes at contaminated sites, combined with assessments of the concentrations of contaminants, their distribution in the different soil components and groundwater, the bioavailability of the contaminants, the biodegradation potential of the microflora, the limiting factors, an enhanced understanding of the degradative microflora, determination of mass balance including metabolites and dead-end products, the ecotoxicological aspects of intermediates, possible interaction between micro-organisms and mineral pollutants and their transfer in soils. Some biotechnological approaches are used successfully on a large scale. However to regard bioremediation as a favourable component in an integrated treatment strategy, a lot of new assessment, measurement and evaluation methods are necessary for controlling and monitoring polluted sites, and to understand how heavy metals and radionuclides are bound and transported, both in soil and sediment ^[1].

In Germany, biotechnological research and development is primarily supported by the programme "Biotechnologie 2000", which fosters bioremediation, bioprocessing, risk research, renewable raw materials, as well as cell biology, genetics, protein engineering, neurobiology, plant biotechnology and the use of animal alternatives in research. Biotechnological research and development for waste management and site restoration is also undertaken in the framework of remediation programmes and CCE programmes. At the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology, for over two decades the biodecontamination of toxic materials from air, water, and soil has been a general theme of the research and development programme. This research has dealt with:

1. developing effective microbial systems in combination with adapted chemical engineering methods;
2. the design and application of membranes and filtration techniques;
3. developing and modifying sorbents and biosorbents;
4. optimising different microbial systems for specific metabolic processes in soil, sludge, liquid media, including the degradation of persistent, toxic and xenobiotic organic waste, solubilisation;
5. the extraction or fixation of contaminants and products of their degradation;
6. screening autonomous micro-organisms and ascertaining their optimal growth and metabolic conditions;
7. solving practical engineering solutions of the bioremediation of soils; and
8. the removal and accumulation of contaminants from fluids, using membrane reactor techniques followed by biodegradation, and adapting similar techniques for radioactive contaminants.

Future trends will deal with the bioextraction and bioaccumulation of radionuclides from effluents and soil, using the potential of micro-organisms and biomolecules to specifically absorb heavy metals (7 Cd or up to 18 Hg ions per molecule of metallothionein). A number of micro-organisms either naturally or under special conditions produce specific biomolecules for binding heavy metals. These can then be eluted by changing the pH ^[1,15,16].

In Portugal biotechnology and recycling remediation technologies are fostered under the scientific umbrella programme, CiLncia, which covers biochemistry, bioprocessing, animal and cell culture, protein engineering, microbiology, and genetic engineering, in addition to projects on "Experimental Evaluation of Remediation Techniques for Contaminated Coke-Oven Sites", "Mercury Removal from Waste Sources" (MERWAS), "Strategies for Rehabilitation of Metal Polluted Soils: in situ Phytoremediation, Immobilisation and Revegetation, a Comparative Study" (PHYTOREHAB), and "Concerted Action on Risk Assessment for Contaminated Sites in the European Union" (CARACAS). The INETI-IBQTA-DB-Unidade de Bioengenharia e Bioprocessos and the Forbitec, a non-profit Association for Training and Development of Biotechnology, fosters biotechnological research and development for

1. the restoration of land contaminated by industrial and urban activities;
2. the biological treatment of soil, urban and industrial hazardous waste;
3. promoting the best possible means to dispose of residues;
4. the recovery of any potential value from waste (in the form of secondary raw material and/or energy) and
5. the reduction of mass to be disposed in landfill.

A detailed study is also being carried out on the degradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by micro-organisms isolated from contaminated soil ^[1,17].

In Spain research and development in biotechnology is being supported through various specific programmes, the most important being the Technological Development Plan for Biotechnology, Chemical Technology and Advanced Materials. Research for radioactive waste management and site restoration is also being carried out through CCE Programmes. CIEMAT fosters biotechnological research and development for the treatment of wastes, including post-accidental ones and on rehabilitation of radioactively-contaminated sites. The areas of research include developing biotechnological techniques to deal with:

1. mobilisation of radionuclides, through the heterotrophic anaerobic leaching of waste during the degradation of organic matter, bioleaching for the extraction of valuable metals from low grade ores by acidophilic bacteria and the removal of metals from different types of solid waste using iron and/or sulphur-oxidising bacteria;
2. immobilisation of radionuclides with biosorbents, using dead or living biomass as cation exchange resins and flocculant agents, and the development of artificial wetlands based on sulphur reducing bacteria in anaerobic environments with high organic matter at neutral pH; and
3. stabilisation of radionuclides by composting, during the anaerobic digestion of organic waste.

These biotechnological techniques are being applied at an industrial scale. Landfilling and composting, which treats heterogeneous solid waste having a high organic matter content (municipal solid waste: MSW), have been selected for further development to improve their operational parameters. The findings from the siting and operation of MSW landfills could be useful in the design of repositories for post-accidental waste, allowing the conservation of economic resources without increasing the risks associated with final disposal operations and the maintenance and control of the facility ^{[1, 11]}.

In the United Kingdom the biotechnological research and development is funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC); the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Forestry Commission, the Home Office, the Overseas Development Agency and the Ministry of Defence. During 1996, the government launched the "Crusade for Biotechnology", a major umbrella initiative which attempted to group a range of activities to provide a focus linked to the Technology Foresight exercise. Biotechnological research and development for the nuclear sector includes

1. biodecontamination of the concrete and steel surfaces, of redundant buildings, plant and equipment, in the decommissioning programme;
2. biocorrosion of concrete surfaces;
3. biofundamentals on understanding metal-microbe interactions to correlate scientific parameters with biochemical engineering mathematical modelling and to understand biofilm formation in the presence of toxic heavy metals for the development of novel intensive bioreactors;
4. bioremediation, by mobilising metal pollutants from soil using microbially-generated acid for in-situ and ex-situ operations, and the study of bioleaching of mine spoil tips, toxic solid wastes, ventilation dusts; and
5. development of biosensors for monitoring heavy metal pollutants in waste streams.

The research and development at Westlakes Research Institute includes investigations into phytoremediation along with other biotechnological research. Phytoremediation is considered as an emerging and potentially acceptable solution to the remediation of land contaminated with radionuclides, by both the nuclear power station operators and the nuclear reprocessing industry. This technology is defined as the engineered use of plants to take up and sequester environmental contaminants, and involves the selective uptake capabilities of the plant root system (in association with its rhizosphere) and the translocation, bioaccumulation and contaminant storage abilities of the whole plant. A variety of advantages have been claimed for phytoremediation, the most notable being lower cost. Costs for the clean-up of metal-contaminated soil have been estimated at around US$400 per ton for soil washing and US$400-1200 per ton for incineration, compared to costs as low as US$80 per ton for phytoremediation using metal-accumulating plants. In addition, in situ phytoremediation is an ecologically preferred option since it reclaims the soil in a biologically safe and active form. There has, over the past few years, been significant research and field activity into the application of these technologies, though, as yet, few have reached commercial status. Biosorbents are another promising option for the treatment of contaminated aqueous effluent from reprocessing, waste-water from fuel storage ponds or leachate from contaminated sites. Work is now being undertaken to optimise the magnetic properties of the iron sulphide biosorbent by growth of SRB in a chemostat with magnetic feedback. The absorbent properties of this iron sulphide are also being investigated for the ability to bind a range of heavy metals, actinides and lanthanides for applications in effluent clean-up by the nuclear industry ^[2,18,19] .

In Russia, biotechnological research and development has been supported through Special Projects and Programmes of the Ministries for Science, Ecology, Public Health and Atomic Energy of USSR, (now the Russian Federation (MAE RF)). Environmental, agricultural, medical, food industry and pharmaceutical applications of biotechnology are currently being investigated. The biotechnological research and development for waste management and site restoration in the nuclear sector were supported by the State Programme on Liquidation of Consequences of the Chernobyl Accident (1989-92), and are included in many Conversion Programme Projects of the MAE RF on "Nuclide materials, substances, goods and prospective technologies", and "Management and Utilisation of Radioactive Wastes and Spent Nuclear Materials". Much of the research is carried out in collaboration with institutions and companies in several different countries, through bilateral international projects under the framework of CEC-Programmes with even greater opportunities arising through the International Programme of ECOPROGRESS INTERNATIONAL. To encourage this, the Russian National Centre of Biotechnology for Nuclear & Industrial Power (RCBNIP) was established in 1995 by enterprises of the MAE RF, the Ministry for Health, the Russian Academy of Science, the Russian Academy of Agronomical Sciences and the State Committee for Superior Education. RCBNIP is now progressing, benefitting from the many disciplines of the different branches of Russian science. Biotechnological research and development includes the development of biotechnological methods alone, or in combination with physico-chemical methods, for

1. minimisation of radioactive waste (by the use of biosorbents, phytosorbents, microbial mass, metallothioneins, biomolecules, biopolymers, microbial treatment of cellulose- and lignin-containing radioactive waste);
2. stabilisation of radioactive waste;
3. microbial extraction of valuable compounds from liquid radioactive waste;
4. microbial destruction of organic components in liquid radioactive waste; and
5. conditioning (concentration, compacting, conversion into suitable chemical matrices and physical structures, followed by a controlled temporary storage and final disposal).

Biomedical implementations include the production of stable nuclides of low mass (carbon-13, nitrogen-15 etc.) for the production of biologically- and physiologically-active compounds labelled by stable and radioactive nuclides and the development of immunostimulating genetically engineered products, such as enterosorbents (interleukines), for the protection of workers from the effect of radiation. In addition, genetically engineered products for the treatment of hazardous and mixed wastes are being developed. The following biotechnological research for site restoration is being carried out:

1. development of biosensors;
2. the use of bioremediation using microbial biomass obtained as secondary waste from biotechnological, microbiological and food industries, and with organisms obtained from the Genetic and Microbiological Collections;
3. the use of modified phytosorbents and chitin-chitosan sorbents and derivatives;
4. the development of sorbents from natural and synthetic polymers, and from the wastes of the timber industry;
5. the synthesis of complexed biosorbents;
6. the use of biomolecules such as metallothioneins;
7. sorbents derived from microbial cells encapsulated in polymerised hydrogels;
8. bioextraction from pulp; and
9. vermiculture for site restoration.

Recently, some promising results have been obtained on retaining Pu, Am, Cs and Sr with chitin-chitosan products and on the removal of a wide spectrum of elements from liquid radioactive waste using phytosorbents. Some of these bioremedial techniques have been applied in the area surrounding the Chernobyl accident ^[1,2,20] .

The sharing of informational and educational resources with regard to advanced novel technologies with potential for waste management and site restoration is an important element towards building global understanding and developing national decisions. With respect to education, efforts in this direction help build a firm base for establishing technological progress and encourage the growth of the national economy, by stimulating the labour market and developing social perspectives.

Currently there are many national and international educational and training programmes on environmental biotechnology, dealing with waste management and site restoration in the non-nuclear sector. However this is not the case for the nuclear sector for which few educational or training courses exist. Furthermore, to date many countries have no well-defined strategy to undertake training in radioactive waste management or site restoration. Nevertheless, attempts are now being undertaken in some countries to remedy this. In the US such courses result from the activities of the International Educational Alliance ^[21]. In Portugal environmental education is supported under governmental directives by the Basis Law for Environment and there are professional courses leading to qualifications of Technician of Environmental and Landscape Management and Technician of Environmental Management. The Forbitec (a non-profit-making Association for Training and Development of Biotechnology) has organised courses on Environmental Technologies and Sciences for SME staff and is being encouraged to apply its educational assistance to courses dealing with the management of radioactive waste and contaminated sites. In Germany courses to train for novel posts, such as biotechnical engineer, technical biologist, environmental engineer etc., are being organised under the framework of new professional programmes, which could be sufficiently flexible to allow further specialisation in the area of biotechnological research and development for the management of radioactive waste and the restoration of radioactively contaminated sites. In Russia an international educational programme on advanced technologies for waste management and site restoration is being developed by the RCBNIP under the framework of "ECOPROGRESS INTERNATIONAL".

Biotechnology for radioactive waste management and site restoration as an interdisciplinary area of research and practice, at this moment is entering a phase of development to become a promising field of science and technology. As a consequence, university-level programmes supporting its continuing growth will need to evolve in the direction of interdisciplinarity of content and flexibility of form, in order to meet both the epistemological challenges of this composite field of study but also in order to respond to the increasing challenges imposed by modern society on its scientists, technologists and decision-makers. The preparation and appropriate training of the professionals who will be charged with some of these responsibilities ought to respond to the complex requirements of in-depth knowledge in one or a few specific disciplines together with a broader appreciation of several other complementary disciplines. The relevant interdisciplinary education challenges could deal therefore with questions of translation of research developments into appropriate "educational modules", of breadth versus depth and the fashioning composite fields of study. In view of recognition of the problem, there is a noticeable trend towards curriculum reform in favour of interdisciplinary curricula that combine the breadth of the complementary disciplines, the depth of science and engineering fundamentals, together with the perspective and professionalism required for real-world practitioners.

The future development of biotechnology in nuclear and industrial sectors depends on the access of very highly skilled, multicultural and multi-disciplinary experienced staff with graduate and post-graduate qualifications. To ensure the continuation of recent progress of biotechnology in nuclear and industrial sectors, the elaboration of educational strategies is needed on national and international levels. Educational and training programmes have to be developed for the practical realisation of such a strategy. International centres to provide multi-disciplinary education and training have to be planned. These activities have to be adapted to the demands of national economy and labour market in each country ^[1].

The social dimension of biotechnology for waste management and site restoration in the nuclear sector involves the general public's perceptions, knowledge and attitudes towards complex problems of nuclear energy, environment and practical benefit of biotechnology. Public opinion in respect of biotechnology is a complex process, depending on (i) expectations regarding new technologies, (ii) knowledge of biotechnology, (iii) attitudes and opinions on its different applications , (iv) information sources for knowledge of the new developments which affect the way of life, (v) information sources that people trust, (vi) questions of ethics, (vii) influence that persons or groups concerned about the potential risks associated with advances in biotechnology and its different applications can actually have on this development ^{[1, 22, 23]}.

Public acceptance of biotechnological developments and new applications is crucial to their ultimate success. At the present time the overall picture of attitudes and perceptions of biotechnology, is an optimistic one. In USA, one may refer to the familiarity and acceptance of biotechnology in the industry, in the financial community and in the public. For the same reasons the UK emerges as the most favoured alternative location for biotechnology activities in Europe. France is also considered attractive, because of the perceived public acceptance of biotech and the strong political support from the French government. The new-found enthusiasm for biotechnology in Germany is one of the most significant and encouraging changes taking place in Europe at the present time.

The role of the general public in influencing the development of biotechnology varies in different countries, but can be critical to its use for the nuclear sector, dealing with the remediation of land contaminated with toxic chemicals and radionuclides and for radioactive waste management. This application of biotechnology is relatively new, not yet widely used nor explicitly known by the general public. However despite the lack of empirical evidence about the social dimension, one may refer to two main trends.

The first, favourable trend for the expanded use of biotechnological processes for site restoration is viewing it as a 'green' or 'natural' technology. As opposed to 'unnatural' remediation techniques that employ human intervention with chemical or physical methods, bioremediation allows natural processes using naturally occurring micro-organisms to cleanse the earth and is viewed as a human assisted extension of natural processes at work in the water and soil without physical disturbance that excavation and other remedial actions require. There are some examples where the public welcomes biotechnological processes for environmental cleanup, whilst being strongly opposed to incineration or chemical treatment of contaminants as remediation techniques.

The second, unfavourable trend of public opinion views biotechnological processes for the remediation of toxic chemical and radionuclide contamination as science run amok. In this perspective, scientists are manipulating nature in potentially dangerous ways that increase the possibility of environmental disaster. The greatest fear is associated with use of genetically engineered micro-organisms and with possible introduction of "laboratory monsters" in the environment. An example of such a fear is that a micro-organism genetically altered to bioremediate petroleum contamination could get loose and destroy the planet's petroleum reserves.

The social dimension of biotechnology for site restoration and waste management is determined by the general public's perception of risks posed by the contaminants and by exposure to the contaminants caused by the remediation techniques. The general public perceives the presence or potential presence of contaminated lands as a health risk and often greater than are warranted by the empirical evidence of the actual risk. Involuntary exposure to a health risk causes greater stress and fear than voluntary exposures of equal or even greater risk to health. And the psychological stress from involuntary exposure by itself can be a serious health risk. Involuntary technological risks, such as those associated with contaminated lands and remediation techniques, are more stressful than natural hazards such as floods, earthquakes, or hurricanes. People accept natural hazards as uncontrollable, but they are frustrated when forced to accept technological hazards that are considered evidence of human failure. The fear and stress, caused by involuntary technological risk are responsible for the NIMBY effect (not in my backyard), which makes siting new waste disposal and other activities, which pose perceived environmental risks, exceedingly difficult. Remediation activities are often viewed as NIMBY activities by some people, preventing the use of some on-site remediation techniques, that would reduce the health threat of toxins on the contaminated land ^[1,22,23].

Biotechnology is recognised as a significant area of economic opportunity. By the year 2000 with an estimated world market of 199 billion ECU for the biotechnology industry, the market in Europe for biotechnology is expected to grow from less than 10 billion ECU in 1996 to almost eight times that size. The industry size in Japan is estimated by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry to reach $35 billions ^[22]. From estimations of Ernst & Young, the US biotechnology R&D expenditure achieved 6,320 billion ECU in 1997, compared to that in European of 1,508 billion ECU ^{[22, 23]} . There are fears that Europe is in danger of falling even further behind the USA and Japan in the biotechnology "race". Both USA and Japan spend more on research than Europe and both also have had for a number of years broad-based, strategic programmes for biotechnology.

In market economies, economic and business considerations are arguably the primary driving force in the development and use of new and innovative techniques. Biotechnology contributes efficiently in improved decontamination of wastes at low cost, in minimisation of capital and operational costs and cost for disposing of secondary wastes. Bioremediation holds the promise of significantly lower environmental cleanup costs. For example, estimates are that bioremediation costs will range from one quarter to half those of other remediation techniques for environmental cleanup of organic toxic chemical contamination. In USA, for instance, with soil contaminated by gasoline, bioremediation is found to be more cost-effective than alternative remediation options such as incineration or air stripping. Bioremediation techniques to destroy organic chemical solvents and to concentrate heavy metals and radionuclides also show promise. In-situ bioremediation holds the greatest potential for cost-effective environmental cleanup, due to eliminating the substantial cost of excavating or pumping.

The cost of bioremediation and other environmental cleanup methods have economic implications for regional and international economic competitiveness. An environmental cleanup program that is too expensive is not politically viable. The government of the United States views its present policies as threatening the international competitiveness of its economy because the environmental cleanup program is so expensive that America's goods and services will become more expensive than the goods and services of countries that do not require such complete and expensive remediation of contaminated land. The Netherlands is also concerned that their expensive environmental cleanup program will make their products uncompetitive compared to the products of other European Union countries with less effective but less expensive environmental cleanup policies. The European Union is considering establishing a common policy towards environmental cleanup in order to maintain a 'level playing field' for all the countries of the Union. Globalization of the world's economies influences the processes of contamination and of remediation in all countries, but it is especially significant in the developing countries. Being the location of rapidly growing contaminated land problems, developing countries are an important market for bioremediation techniques.

Today, it is estimated that over 150 billion U.S. dollars ^[25] will be required to clean up the remaining contaminated environment in the United States. A recent report indicates that the present annual cost of clean up in Central and Eastern Europe amounts to 7 billion dollars ^[26]. These estimates indicate the market is large and that countries with fledging or unstable economies need to be cost conscience in their choice of treatment technologies.

Approximately 15 years ago the US EPA did not consider that bioremediation would be a valuable treatment technology. Today, this type of technology is considered one of the primarily technologies for in-situ remediation. The current estimated annual investment or expenditure for biotreatment as a remedial action in cleaning up contamination is a $2 billion business in the United States. The areas of focus for much of this effort is in the remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater. This stage of bioremediation is the first phase in the first generation of bioprocessing methods for waste treatment. The contaminants being biotreated include, petroleum hydrocarbons, organic compounds and solvents, degreasing agents, agricultural chemicals, nitrate, sulfate, some metals, etc. If a country does not have capital intensive and environmentally clean incineration facilities for the destruction of concentrated stored wastes, bioprocessing or the integration of bioprocessing with other physical and chemical pre-treatment or post-treatment technologies can be a very economical solution.

The market for biotechnological processes in the nuclear sector is only just developing and its potential appears quite large. A growing demand for new approaches to mitigate environmental contamination has resulted in increased use and acceptance of biotechnology for remediation in commercial and military sectors ^[4] . At the present time, regulatory and cost advantages of in-situ biological treatment are playing a significant role in the expansion of this market. A significant portion of the market will continue to involve the cleanup of closed military facilities; however, the largest growth is predicted to occur in the areas of in-process pollution treatment, bioreactors and biofilters as large industrial manufacturers attempt to reduce process emissions and cut pollution abatement costs.

Enlargement of the market for biotechnology in the nuclear sector is integral with economical and political considerations. On the one hand it could deal with the enlargement of current conservation nuclear and environmental programmes and with a growing market for site restoration. On the other hand, biotechnology is considered as a "breakthrough" technology ensuring the progress of national economy. The increase of investments in such technologies is supported by favourable tax policies in leading industrialised countries ^{[1, 22-28]}.

In USA the main statements on environmental applications of biotechnology were clearly indicated in the report of the Environmental Protection Agency. Bioremediation which would employ natural microbes in rocks or soils to break down and destroy organic compounds, or to immobilise radionuclides and toxins, takes one of the most important places in the largest environmental project in the world on cleaning up the legacy of US nuclear weapons production, the first to be directed specifically at DOE clean-up, in the bioremediation programme in the Office of Energy Research, in the Programmes in environmental geochemistry at the National Science Foundation.

In Europe, the "White Paper on Growth, Competitiveness, Employment" stated that biotechnology is one of the most promising and crucial technologies for a sustainable economic development in the next century. It was this clear political commitment for the commercial application of biotechnology by the EU Heads of State that gave increasing hope for a more supportive climate for biotechnology in Europe (18). A number of national and international programmes have been developed which foster development and application of emerging technologies in different sectors of economy.

In Central and Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union, many national and international environmental programmes are being undertaken, focusing on developing cost-efficient, realistic solutions. An economic restructuring, policy development and institutions building, assessing environmental conditions and policy performance are main issues, to be taken into consideration. There is a clear understanding about (i) the major role of economic reforms in promoting reduction in pollution levels, (ii) the role of market competition, hard budget constraints and raising prices in stimulating economic and resource efficiency, (iii) the need for environmental regulations to steer the process of economic development in a sustainable direction and to promote policy coherence among industry, agriculture and energy sectors of economy, (iv) the need for the emerging private sector to be an active partner in resolving environmental problems, (v) the need for governments to clarify responsibility for environmental liability ^[19]. Sound environmental management, growing commitment to cleaner production and waste minimisation have to take a major place in policy, economical and business dimensions. In this view biotechnology is considered as one of the perspective tools.

The elaboration of a technological strategy for the nuclear and industrial sector, based on advantages of modern biotechnological processes, needs the consolidation of efforts on an international scale. Existing collaborations between many research centres have resulted in the establishment of "ECOPROGRESS INTERNATIONAL", an international scientific non-profit-making association for the Promotion of Advanced Technologies for Management and Disposal of Waste and for Site Restoration, with a registered office in Brussels and representation in St. Petersburg (Russia).

The main mission of ECOPROGRESS INTERNATIONAL is to develop and implement an international strategy on site restoration and management and disposal of wastes, focusing on development and implementation of environmentally sound, economic, socially acceptable, promising technologies to ensure a future sustainable development of the environment. The activities of the Association ensure the development and realisation of these main objectives.

These activities are directed towards co-ordination and promotion of scientific, technical and educational policies to optimise the potential of different countries - the executors of the programme. The participation of institutions from different countries in this Programme could be the stimulus for the promotion, realisation and consolidation of this promising direction. It should allow benefit from the wide potential of biotechnology in the nuclear and industrial sectors at both national and international levels ^{[1, 2, 20]}.

Biotechnology can be successfully applied to many aspects of waste management and site restoration in the nuclear sector, resulting in a large market for biotechnological R&D, the use of biotechniques and the application of biosubstances. To gain world-wide benefit from the use of biotechnology in the nuclear sector, an international consensus is needed on long-term technological strategy, involving joint national effort and stimulated concerted action to allow full support for the R&D to be exploited by industry. To put these objectives in realistic dimensions, a greater recognition of the importance of biotechnology to the science base is needed together with increased co-ordination between and within the research programmes of different countries to minimise wasteful duplication and to maximise collaboration, with the aim of improving the efficiency of R&D expenditure.

There is the need for integration on a scientific basis of the promising technologies along with an improvement and co-ordination of options, to apply modern biotechnology for the benefit of environmental safety in the nuclear sector. This could be realised through many different actions, including :

• elaborating the concept on applying biotechnology for site restoration and waste management;
• stimulating additional quality R&D in environmentally relevant biotechnological areas;
• encouraging public understanding of the benefits of biotechnology through education and training;
• using legislative and other means to encourage biotechnology as effective and environmentally "friendly" business opportunities; and
• implementing appropriate and efficient technology transfer from R&D programmes into practical applications.

The establishment and dissemination of reliable information on all aspects of biotechnological applications in the nuclear sector is important, especially as regards potential benefits and risks. This involves illustrating innovative advantages as well as addressing issues such as safety, ethics and environmental protection.

Nowadays the favourable climate of world environmental policies towards biotechnological processes offers wider perspectives for different biotechnological applications, including those in the nuclear sector. But whether or not the benefit of biotechnology will be applicable for the nuclear sector ultimately depends on the current and future ability of the world industry to invest and to compete on national and international markets. Present successful experience justifies investments into the creation, development and implementation of modern parks of biotechnologies for the nulcear sector.This is important for developing an ecologically sound, safe and socially acceptable modern nuclear industry.The Scientific Association "ECOPROGRESS INTERNATIONAL" with the International Programme on "Advanced Technologies for Management and Disposal of Wastes and Site Restoration" should be an active partner in the realisation of these perspectives.

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Bitchaeva (Russian CBNIP)
e.mail: obitchae@sckcen.be

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