Cleaning Up Japan's Radioactive Mess with Blue Goo
DeconGel Pour it on, peel it off. Courtesy: DeconGelPaint it on and peel it off A clever technology is helping hazmat crews in Japan contain and clean up the contamination caused by the ongoing nuclear disaster there: a blue liquid that hardens into a gel that peels off of surfaces, taking microscopic particles like radiation and other contaminants with it. Known as DeconGel, Japanese authorities are using it inside and outside the exclusion zone on everything from pavement to buildings. DeconGel was stumbled upon by accident at Hawaiian venture capital firm and technology incubator Skai Ventures. A researcher conducting an experiment got a bit of solution from an experiment on the floor; when it was cleaned up the next morning, the solution came off the floor taking everything foreign with it. Underneath, the floor was so clean they couldn't make the rest of the surface look the same with any amount of...