Posts
However, even the radioactive cesium-137 with a half-life about 30 years can be removed by a natural product - sunflower. Widely known as a source of food (oil, seed) and for its therapeutic purposes, the sunflower has one more remarkable property that is not so well known: it can absorb radioactive cesium in the soil.
Along with rape blossoms, sunflowers were used to decontaminate soil in Ukraine after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
First, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency plans to use hyperthermophilic aerobic bacteria to decompose the sunflowers to about 1 percent of their previous volume - slashing the amount of radioactive waste. Then the decomposed plants can be burned to disburse radioactive cesium through smoke.
The sunflower with its large, bright yellow flower head like the sun, brings hope and a bright future to the wasteland of Fukushima!
