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Gamma Cell for Atomic Energy Authority

The Atomic Energy Authority (AEA) has received a Gamma Cell from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) under its Technical Cooperation programme.

The Gamma Cell would be used to carry out research in the field of food preservation, enhancing quality of gemstones and to provide irradiated latex to the industry, a press release said.

Irradiation has become one of the internationally accepted methods for food preservation. One of the most important uses of ionising radiation is based on the lethal effect it has on micro-organisms such as bacteria, parasites and pathogens which cause food borne diseases.

More than 50 countries have approved the use of irradiation to guard against food borne diseases to eliminate bacteria and pathogens. Other applications include sterilizing pharmaceutical and prepackaged hospital and medical supplies from gloves to syringes, to meet stringent health care standards.

National and global health authorities back the safety and effectiveness of these irradiation processes which do not induce radioactivity in processed materials.

In the USA the postal service has announced new safety measures that include processing mail with electron beam technology which uses machines called electron accelerators powered by electricity to eliminate health threats posed by anthrax-tainted letters and parcels.

The AEA hopes to popularise these new technologies and the next step will be to install a semi pilot scale gamma irradiator to irradiate food commodities such as spices for the export market and for sterilizing medical products such as scissors, catheters, surgical gloves etc, the release said.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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