The role of R&D in facilitating industrial use of radiation processing.

Abstract

Radiation Applications Research Branch was formed by AECL to develop and help industry apply new applications of ionizing radiation. The current major industrial uses of such radiation, sterilization of medical disposables and crosslinking, grafting and polymerization, were developed primarily by, or in close cooperation with, industrial users. Major opportunities exist today to broaden the range of products pasteurized or sterilized by radiation and to extend crosslinking and polymerization into bulk materials and large components. Collaboration between experts in user industries and radiation scientists is proposed as a cost and time effective method of exploiting these opportunities.