Scientists testing plants in fight against radioactivity

["Mercado, Don" <don.mercado@lmco.com>]

> (August 25, 1998 01:19 a.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) -- Scientists
> in
> radiation suits have
> begun harvesting dwarf sunflowers, spinach, sugar beet and Indian mustard
> planted next to an
> aging nuclear reactor in Essex, in southeast England.
> 
> It's part of an experiment to see if plants that rapidly absorb
> radioactivity could be used to clear
> up contaminated ground far more cheaply and efficiently than traditional
> methods.
> 
> British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), which operates the 25-year-old Magnox
> reactor
> at Bradwell,
> believes it could save them from digging up hundreds of tons of
> contaminated
> soil and carting
> it to Cumbria in northwest England for dumping.
> 
> The idea also has potential for other industries to clear up toxic
> chemicals.
> 
> The soil in which the plants grew is contaminated with caesium 137 after
> water leaked from a
> rusty underground cooling system installed in the 1970s. It's the same
> isotope that caused
> problems after the Chernobyl accident when it turned up in sheep and made
> them
> unmarketable after they had eaten grass growing in the fallout zone.
> 
> Bradwell health physicist Chris James said the bulk of the contaminated
> soil
> had been
> removed and the company was investigating taking out more when BNFL's
> Berkeley
> laboratories asked if the site could be used as a test bed for a
> potentially
> far cheaper method.
> 
> The plants harvested will be tested to see which variety is most
> successful
> in collecting
> radioactivity. Soil tests will also be taken at Bradwell to see how much
> the
> caesium 137 level
> has gone down.
> 
> Nets have been used to keep birds and insects away and anti-rabbit fencing
> was put around
> the test garden.
> 
> The plants in the test garden were all cut before they seeded to avoid
> returning radioactivity to
> the ground. After testing they will be burned and the ash will be disposed
> of in the normal way
> in Cumbria.
> 
> "The idea has tremendous potential because we have to close down our old
> nuclear stations
> and our aim is to return them to greenfield sites," said BNFL spokesman
> Robin Thornton.
> "Obviously there will be contaminated soil but it would be tremendously
> expensive and difficult
> to transport it all away to Cumbria.
> 
> "If we could get plants to draw out the radioactivity and clean the soil,
> all we would have to do is
> burn the plants and dispose of the ash," he said. "It is early days yet,
> but
> if we could find the
> right plants and best methods it would apply to different types of toxic
> materials and clean up
> other contaminated sites."
> 
> Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.
> 
>  
> 
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