PhotoBlog - decontaminate

Jul

2011

8:48am, EDT

Yoshikazu Tsuno / AFP - Getty Images

Sunflowers planted by local elemenary school children grow in the tsunami hit field in in Natori, in Miyagi prefecture, July 15. Japan has campaign to grow sunflowers to help decontaminate radioactive soil, in response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster that followed March's massive quake and tsunami.

Sunflowers being planted to decontaminate the soil in Japan

By Phaedra Singelis, NBC News

Apparently sunflowers were used to decontaminate soil in Ukraine after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. What a pretty way to clean up.

AFP reports:

Volunteers are being asked to grow sunflowers this year, then send the seeds to the stricken area where they will be planted next year to help get rid of radioactive contaminants in the plant's fallout zone.

The campaign, launched by young entrepreneurs and civil servants in Fukushima prefecture last month, aims to cover large areas in yellow blossoms as a symbol of hope and reconstruction and to lure back tourists.

Full AFP story.