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The ChemScan
analyser from CHEMUNEX S.A., the rapid microbial testing company
specialising in the rapid and ultra-sensitive detection of bacterial
contamination, has been successfully used to monitor the microbiological
quality of cooling water released by an electricity generating
power station, the company announced today.
The cooling
water from power stations, thermal or nuclear, and other industrial
plant is at high risk from microbiological contamination as it
is generally released at a temperature more conducive to rapid
bacterial growth than water at ambient temperature. The problem
is aggravated in the summer and can result in plant shut-down
or contamination of river waters by harmful micro-organisms.
A report on
the successful trials was published on 27 November by France's
national scientific research organization, the CNRS (Centre National
de la Recherche Scientifique). Apart from Chemunex and the CNRS,
France's electricity utility, EDF (Electricité de France)
and Indicia Diagnostics were part of the team carrying out the
trials.
The main objective
of the Civaux trials was to develop a fast and highly sensitive
method of detecting pathogenic amoebae in water. Current methods
demand several days before producing reliable results. CNRS scientists
developed a testing method and reagents that allow results to
be obtained using the ChemScan analyser in less than four hours
and with higher accuracy than previous methods.
This approach
was successfully applied throughout summer 2000 to the cooling
water from the nuclear power station at Civaux on the River Vienne
in central France. The ChemScan-based system provided continuous
close-to-real-time reassurance that there were no pathogenic amoebae
in the water. The speed and sensitivity of the method made it
possible to guarantee the quality of the water released into the
river, and contributed to the uninterrupted operation of the power
station during the summer, thus avoiding potential high financial
losses.
The CNRS report
says that the technology, developed at the request of EDF for
the detection of toxic amoebae, will be extended to several other
harmful micro-organisms that are often responsible for environmental
health problems.
Traditional
methods of water analysis rely on a culture that takes several
days to produce a result. Several newer attempts to accelerate
the process are more sensitive but still fail to distinguish living
micro-organisms - the only ones that can reproduce - from the
dead ones. Chemunex provides reagents that allow the detection
of viable micro-organisms. Used together with the ChemScan analyser,
they provide the only way to obtain results in two to three hours
with a sensitivity of as little as one micro-organism.
The CNRS report
concludes: "The combination of this viability test with the
detection of specific micro-organisms such as amoebae, algae and
bacteria, should make it possible to detect very quickly and at
the same time the presence of pathogenic micro-organisms and their
viability with a view to preventing environmental accidents."
"We are
proud to have collaborated with the CNRS and to be able to include
EDF in our already long list of blue-chip clients," said
Louis Foissac, chairman of Chemunex. "The fast detection
using ChemScan of micro-organisms that are harmful to the environment
opens up a new market which is growing rapidly due to the increasing
public concern about contamination and the strengthening of regulations
and controls".
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