RE: Food Irradiation

[Free Spirit <FRANK@rover.bsd.uchicago.edu>]

>From:	SMTP%"radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu" 14-FEB-1996 13:11:23.65
>Subj:	Food Irradiation
>From: FRAMEP@ORAU.GOV
>.
>Maybe some of the U.S. military gals/guys  can provide more
>info/correct this but I understand that some of the military MRE
>(meals ready to eat) are irradiated at facilities in the U.S. and
>Canada. I was told that this irradiation is done with an accelerator
>rather than a gamma source.

	The military was into this as early as the late 50's. I ran across
	an old report our group did with their then new 40 MeV linac
	for the quartermaster corps. Among other things it showed the
	activity decay plots for irradiated cheese. (And you thought
	nacho cheese was hot....)

	Siemens (then Applied Radiation,) made a wierd accelerator
	where the klystron and linac were one unit specifically for
	commercial irradiation. There was one unit in Rockford IL that
	was involved in a rather spectacular worker overdose which tended
	to sink the whole idea until many decades later.

Frank R. Borger - Physicist     ___      What's the best way to tune a Banjo?
Michael Reese - U of Chicago   |___      With an Axe! -  What's the difference
Center for Radiation Therapy   | |_) _   between a dead skunk and a dead banjo
net: Frank@rover.uchicago.edu    | \|_)  player on the road? The skunk was on
ph: 312-791-8075 fa: 791-2517       |_)  his way to a gig!