1. List of uses of gamma rays in the plant SINAGAMA. Why not alpha or beta rays?

In the plant SINAGAMA, they use gamma rays for:

a) Sterilization for medical products

b) Radiation Vulcanized Natural Rubber Latex
c) a microbial-product based company has sent vermiculite medium and product containers for
gamma irradiation
d) Treatment of drinking water, wastewater and industrial effluents;
e) Food irradiation;

Why not alpha or beta decays:

Of the three basic principles of external radiation protection (time, distance, and shielding)
shielding is generally the preferred method because it results in intrinsically safe working conditions,
whereas reliance on distance and time of exposure, involve continuous administrative control over
workers. Source reduction is an important method of reducing dose too, but this handout concerns
the effective use of shielding to attenuate radiation. The amount of shielding required depends on the
type of radiation being shielded, the activity of the source, and on the dose rate which is acceptable
outside of the shielding material.

In choosing a shielding material, the first consideration must be personnel protection. An

effective shield will cause a large energy loss in a small penetration distance without emission of
more hazardous radiation. However, other factors may also influence the choice of shielding
materials such as, cost of the material, weight of the material, and how much space is available for
the material. The effectiveness of the shielding material is determined by the interactions between the
incident radiation and the atoms of the absorbing medium. The interactions which take place depend
mainly upon the type of radiation (alpha, beta, gamma, and neutron), the energy of the radiation, and
the atomic number of the absorbing medium.

Alpha particles lose energy rapidly in any medium because of their relatively high ionization
loss and are stopped by very thin absorbing materials. A few sheets of paper or thin aluminum foil
will absorb alpha particles from alpha-emitting sources. The most energetic alpha will travel only a
few tens of mm in air. The outer layer of skin, approximately 0.07 kg/m2 in thickness, will absorb
alpha particles up to 7.5 MeV. Since this is a dead layer of tissue, no harmful effect is produced upon
the body. Therefore alpha particles do not present a shielding problem.

Beta particles have a very small mass and one-half the magnitude of the charge of alpha
particles. So for a given energy, beta particles have a much greater velocity than alpha particles. As a
result beta particles have a lower specific energy loss, which means that their penetration in any
absorber will be much greater than that of alpha particles. The process by which beta particles lose
energy in absorbers are similar to those for alpha particles. However, an additional problem
encountered when shielding against beta radiation is the process whereby electromagnetic radiation
(secondary X-rays), called bremsstrahlung, are produced.

Gamma rays are preferred because Gamma rays do not lose energy continuously, as do alpha
and beta particles, when passing through an absorber. As a result gamma rays are much more
penetrating than alpha or beta particles. Gamma radiation is attenuated exponentially when it passes
through a shielding material. Therefore, theoretically, gamma rays are never completely absorbed no
matter how thick the shield.

2. How electron beam can be produced?

Cathode rays (also called an electron beam or e-beam) are streams of electrons observed

in vacuum tubes, i.e. evacuated glass tubes that are equipped with at least two metal electrodes to
which a voltage is applied, a cathode or negative electrode and an anode or positive electrode.
A schematic diagram of a Crookes tubeapparatus. A is a low voltage power supply to heat cathode C (a "cold cathode" was
used by Crookes). B is a high voltage power supply to energize the phosphor-coated anode P. Shadow mask M is
connected to the cathode potential and its image is seen on the phosphor as a non-glowing area.

Cathode rays are so named because they are emitted by the negative electrode, or cathode, in a
vacuum tube. To release electrons into the tube, they first must be detached from the atoms of the
cathode. In the early cold cathode vacuum tubes, called Crookes tubes, this was done by using a high
electrical potential between the anode and the cathode to ionize the residual gas in the tube; the ions
were accelerated by the electric field and released electrons when they collided with the cathode.
Modern vacuum tubes use thermionic emission, in which the cathode is made of a thin wire filament
which is heated by a separate electric current passing through it. The increased random heat motion
of the filament atoms knocks electrons out of the atoms at the surface of the filament, into the
evacuated space of the tube.

Since the electrons have a negative charge, they are repelled by the cathode and attracted to the
anode. They travel in straight lines through the empty tube. The voltage applied between the
electrodes accelerates these low mass particles to high velocities. Cathode rays are invisible, but their
presence was first detected in early vacuum tubes when they struck the glass wall of the tube,
exciting the atoms of the glass and causing them to emit light, a glow called fluorescence.
Researchers noticed that objects placed in the tube in front of the cathode could cast a shadow on the
glowing wall, and realized that something must be travelling in straight lines from the cathode. After
the electrons reach the anode, they travel through the anode wire to the power supply and back to the
cathode, so cathode rays carry electric current through the tube.

The current in a beam of cathode rays through a tube can be controlled by passing it through a
metal screen of wires (a grid) to which a small voltage is applied. The electric field of the wires
deflects some of the electrons, preventing them from reaching the anode. Thus a small voltage can be
made to control a much larger voltage. This is the principle used in vacuum tubes
to amplify electrical signals. High speed beams of cathode rays can also be steered and manipulated
by electric fields created by additional metal plates in the tube to which voltage is applied,
or magnetic fields created by coils of wire (electromagnets). These are used in cathode ray tubes,
found in televisions and computer monitors, and in electron microscopes.
 3. What are the characteristics of the electron beam used in the manufacturing sector, medical,
industrial, etc?

Electron beam accelerators and gamma irradiators with Cobalt-60, isotope produced in nuclear
reactor are used as radiation sources. Differences between gamma rays from Cobalt-60 sources and
electron beams are dose rate and penetration of radiation as shown in Table 1. In general gamma
irradiators are used for the irradiation of high-density and large-volume materials while electron
beams are suitable for the irradiation of thin materials such as plastic films and surface coatings.