Greenfield to produce bioethanol from radioactive Chernobyl sugar beet
Irish green energy specialist Greenfield Project Management plans to produce bioethanol from sugar beets grown in Chernobyl soil too radioactive for food crops.
Despite official warnings, many local people continue to grow food in the soil around the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster. The radiation concentrates into roots and stalks which, after harvesting, are ploughed back into the soil, ensuring it remains contaminated.
Now Greenfield, in partnership with Belarusian state engineering concern Belbiopharm, intends to grow sugar beet on the contaminated land. The sugar beet would be radioactive, but the ethanol produced would not: the radioactive compounds would remain in the residue.
Since this could be disposed of safely in a nuclear waste cleanup facility, the soil would be safe to grow food in decades rather than centuries, as experts currently project. The production of biofuel would therefore actually increase the availability of land for food.
Greenfield plans to build the first biofuels distillery next year in one of the most contaminated areas: if the scheme is a success, it plans 10 further plants.
Despite official warnings, many local people continue to grow food in the soil around the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster. The radiation concentrates into roots and stalks which, after harvesting, are ploughed back into the soil, ensuring it remains contaminated.
Now Greenfield, in partnership with Belarusian state engineering concern Belbiopharm, intends to grow sugar beet on the contaminated land. The sugar beet would be radioactive, but the ethanol produced would not: the radioactive compounds would remain in the residue.
Since this could be disposed of safely in a nuclear waste cleanup facility, the soil would be safe to grow food in decades rather than centuries, as experts currently project. The production of biofuel would therefore actually increase the availability of land for food.
Greenfield plans to build the first biofuels distillery next year in one of the most contaminated areas: if the scheme is a success, it plans 10 further plants.
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