Re: FDA likely to approve meat irradiation-Spokesman

["Michael C. Baker" <mcbaker@lanl.gov>]

I believe that above 9 MeV photoneutron production begins to become
a concern.  This may be the issue they were concerned with.

Mike Baker ... mcbaker@lanl.gov

>
>If this is the company I'm thinking of, the low power part refers to the 
>energy of the electron beam used to irradiate the meat.  One of my 
>professors at Univ. of Maryland helped with tech info way back when 
>chicken was approved for irradiation.  The maximum electron energy was 
>choosen to be around 9 MeV because of fear of activation.  Evidently there 
>is an isotope of copper that can be activated by a 10 MeV electron (I think
>it was Cu-65 with an EXTREMELY low probability of capture) and the FDA 
>wanted complete assurance that the food couldn't become radioactive so the 
>limit was set this way.  
>
>Can anyone out there verify this?  This is my memory from several years ago
>and may be out of date or I may have the isotope wrong.  Comments, please?
>
>Scott Kniffin
>