Re: Radiation Sterilization

[Scott Crail <crail@ENGR.ORST.EDU>]

Another way to decrease the amount of exposure to sensitive equipment is
to increase the amount of oxygen in the irradiation chamber to take
advantage of the oxygen effect.  The oxygen effect should increase the RBE
of the radiation(I assume you'll be using either a gamma cell or xrays) by
a factor of 2-3.  Of course increasing the oxygen increase the possibility
of fire, so be careful.


Scott Crail
TRIGA operator/Grad Student, OSU
crail@engr.orst.edu

On Thu, 23 May 1996 don@radpro.uchicago.edu wrote:

> The dose required appears to depend on (1) the amount of reduction in the
> population of bacteria that you want to achieve and (2) the inherent 
> susceptibility to radiation of the microorganisms you have to destroy.
> Your researcher may have to experiment to determine the proper dose.  
> Note also that higher doses might produce radiolytic by-products that 
> could interfere with the research.  
> 
> A review of irradiation in the processing of foods appears in the May 1994
> issue of Food Science & Technology, pp124-144.  This may provide some 
> helpful insights.  One of the articles mentions that certain species of Vibrio
> bacteria can be reduced by "5 to 10 orders of magnitude" with a dose "as low
> as 1 kGy"   
> 
> Hope this helps - gotta run.
> 
> ___________________________________________________________________
> 
> Don Jordan                          Tel. (312) 702-6299
> Office of Radiation Safety          Fax        702-4008
> The University of Chicago           email: don@radpro.uchicago.edu
> 1101 East 57th Street, Room 11
> Chicago, Illinois  60637  
>                 -- Any opinions are the author's -- 
> 
> 
>