Summary
You can't clean up radioactive waste with sunflowers. But...
Sunflowers have a natural ability to absorb and store high levels of harmful substances through their roots. This includes heavy metals, toxins, and deadly isotopes commonly found in radioactive waste. When planted in contaminated soil or water, the sunflower roots draw in the water and nutrients, along with the radioactive elements or other toxins, and essentially "soak up" these dangerous materials from their environment.
So, environmental scientists decided to harness this bizarre superpower of the beautiful sunflower. And while these happy bulbs alone cannot fully clean a site, they do provide a low-cost, eco-friendly method to drastically reduce radioactive contamination and mitigate the effects on the environment over time.
So, you can.
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Cleaning Up Chernobyl with Sunflowers
Sunflowers can help clean up radioactive and heavy metal pollution through phytoremediation, as demonstrated at Chernobyl. They absorb contaminants, which are then safely disposed of.