Solar Detoxification Technology: Using Energy from the Sun to Destroy Hazardous Waste

Solar energy is being applied to one of the most difficult environmental problems our country faces in the coming decades: the destruction of hazardous waste. Researchers within the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Industrial Program are developing two separate technologies-solar detoxification of water and solar decontamination of soil-that could revolutionize the way toxic wastes are removedfrom the environment. Unlike many remediation techniques in use today, these solar-based processes actually destroy hazardous contaminants; the wastes are not transferred to other media for disposal.