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From: pat@symplex.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.cooks,net.veg,net.med
Subject: Re: irradiated food
Message-ID: <128@symplex.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 7-Mar-84 21:07:40 EST
Article-I.D.: symplex.128
Posted: Wed Mar  7 21:07:40 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 10-Mar-84 10:17:19 EST
References: <199@menlo70.UUCP>
Lines: 25


	I haven't been following the net very long ( we just recently
got uucp up & running), but the articles on irradiating food caught
my eye & I have a miniscule addition to make.
	While working for Varian a few years ago, one of the tertiary
projects going on was the development of a linear accelerator for the
purpose of producing sterilizing radiation in the form of x-rays in the
10 to 20 Mv range (Megavolt).  This was an offshoot of the medical
(cancer treatment) devices being mass-produced. 
	Medical linear accelerators have been in use for about two
decades now, and the use & affects thereof are pretty well documented.
This type of radiation device has by now just about completely replaced
Cobalt-60 systems due to much greater dosage rates & lower safety-
related risks.
	I would expect to see linacs replace C-60 in food sterilization
in the near future, if in fact it is not already occuring.
	While the concerns over toxic byproducts from energetic chemical
reations would remain, the issues of short-half-life radioactive by-
products, control over dosage, & contamination of foodstuffs by C-60
should, I think, be resolved by using linacs.

			Richard Patrick
			..!dsd!symplex!pat
			Symplex Communications
			Belmont, Ca. 94002