Ionizing radiation practical considerations

ALARA Acronym for As Low As Reasonably Achievable, means making every reasonable effort to maintain exposures to ionizing radiation as far below the dose limits as practical, consistent with the purpose for which the licensed activity is undertaken, taking into account the state of technology, the economics of improvements in relation to benefits to the public health and safety, and other societal and socioeconomic considerations, and in... 

The ability of ionizing radiation to kill bacteria has been known for some considerable time, but it was only with the advent of large radiation sources that the possibility of applying this process on an industrial scale arose. Previous to the last war, practically all sterilization was carried out by steam, and it is only in the past few years that important developments have taken place in alternative methods of sterilization. There have been two main developments firstly, sterilization by gases such as ethylene oxide and propylene oxide or mixtures of these two, and secondly, radiation sterilization. Both methods of sterilization are cold processes, and it is possible to sterilize articles made from heat-labile materials, in particular, plastics. The main advantages of radiation sterilization are as follows ... 

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