ABSTRACT

Soil contamination by heavy metals, radionuclides, and organic compounds poses significant health risks to humans and animals as well as agricultural production. Contamination of soils has resulted from industrial activities such as mining and smelting, the development of the nuclear industry, the disposal of municipal wastes and sewage enriched with metals, and the use of certain pesticides [1-4]. The remediation of contaminated soils represents a significant expense to many industries and governmental agencies. Soil contamination by toxic metals and radionuclides can be found in almost any country in the world. Because of the large areas of contaminated soils, engineering-based remediation methods, such as excavation, become economically impossible for most of the contaminated sites.