It is believed that sunflower at its full height can absorb large quantities of radioactive
caesium. This property of sunflower is very useful to decontaminate radioactive soil. After
Chernobyl disaster in 1986 a large quantity of sunflower were planted in neighboring areas.
Recent earthquake in japan triggered tsunami which caused Fukushima tragedy. In fact
Fukushima nuclear plant was not prone to earthquake. Its automatic control system stopped
the plant when earthquake started. When its power generation was stopped its cooling system
power was coming from standby generator. But tsunami stopped the generator, as a result
cooling system failed, which resulted meltdown of the plant.
Huge area had to be evacuated; surrounding area came under radioactive exposure. Which was a
headache for local farmers because they feared their crops would also become contaminated.
Sunflower brought the solution for them. They also planted large quantity of sunflowers
which are now bursting into bloom. Officials expecting that the area is becoming
decontaminated in the process. They are also expecting to exploit this huge sunflower field
for tourism industry.
