Friday 9 December 2011

Sunflowers battle radiation in Fukushima, Japan

30 August 2011

"Fifty kilometres away from the plant site the Buddhist Joenji temple. There, chief monk Koyu Abe and a team of 100 volunteers began growing and distributing sunflowers, hoping to both lift spirits and lighten the radiation's impact.
"We plant sunflowers, field mustard, amaranthus and cockscomb, which are all believed to absorb radiation," said the monk. "So far we have grown at least 200,000 flowers (at this temple) and distributed many more seeds. At least 8 million sunflowers blooming in Fukushima originated from here."
Scientists are currently testing the effectiveness of sunflowers used to battle radiation.
One local villager with a home near a radioactive hot spot found that sunflowers helped reduce radiation to exceed government safety levels, MSNBC reports.
Fukushima City's Water Bureau has launched its own sunflower-planting project, hoping to decontaminate the soil in a popular park once home to annual cherry blossom banquets.
In another experimental initiative, a space agriculture professor at Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has planted sunflower seeds in three plots of farmland in the region.
Sunflowers were grown near Chernobyl after the 1986 nuclear disaster. The Wall Street Journal says that researchers discovered that he flowers "absorbed radioactive cesium and strontium from their roots.""
Quoted from http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/good-news/sunflowers-battle-radiation-fukushima-japan-162924686.html
Looking at the picture above (the picture does not have anything to do with the news), its a preview to us on how future nuclear power plant would look like if the sunflowers are proven to absorb the radiation. Let us pray it does since relating sunflowers and nuclear, it would change people opinion with nuclear power. Since flower are symbols of anything related to peace, calm and beautiful. Thus, people will view nuclear power as a safe and beautiful source of electricity ^^.
PS: Okuu thinks the idea is great and she likes the idea >XD

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