And all this army requires to do its work are hot, dry conditions, a little water and the occasional dose of fertilizer. The army is made up of kochia weeds, and environmental engineer Scott Lee of Argone-West's Nuclear Technology Division is their commander in chief. In a smaller but equally important skirmish, small willow trees grow in a three small ditches on the Argonne-West site, their roots removing inorganic contaminants from the soil. The technique, known as phytoremediation, is not only cheaper than traditional clean-up methods, it is also a natural process and aesthetically pleasing. The technique uses the ability of plants to extract contaminants from the soil along with water and nutrients.
Plants can remove several contaminants simultaneously, at low cost and with low maintenance.
Argonne's Environmental Safety and Health Division is managing this cleanup with the expertise of phytoremediation experts in the Energy Systems Division. Placing a concrete cap over the contaminated site is equally undesirable. You're just putting it under a nonpermiable cover, and you have to monitor it forever. Lee began working at Argonne-West in 1994, documenting the 37 known contaminated sites at the laboratory. Some areas were lightly contaminated, making phytoremediation an option.