17 ms·
with pair production I assume you mean electron positron pairs? how is that harmful in food? the lifetime of a positron wouldn't be very long, or is the conce
by DoctorOetker 4y ago
with pair production I assume you mean electron positron pairs?
how is that harmful in food?
the lifetime of a positron wouldn't be very long, or is the concern free radicals?
- DoctorOetker 4y agoas I thought pair production is irrelevant in food irradiation the tolerable limits in particle energies and doses are very high for truly tiny increases in induced radioactivity. its really marginal as long as the very conservative limits are respected. see for example: https://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/te_1287_prn.pdf https://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/te_1287_prn.p...
- scythe 4y agoSounds good to me. From a medical standpoint, I'm aware that irradiated food is perfectly safe. It's the political utility of saying "no residual radioactivity" that I was focused on. But I guess positrons probably aren't much different from electrons in causing that.