Why Not Build an Irradiation Plant?

The real issue here is nuclear waste.

Cobalt 60 has a half-life of 5.2 years. That means that after 5.2 years, the material in the plant will be half as radioactive and, therefore, half as effective. It will have to be replaced well before 5.2 years. The material remove, being half as radioacitve as is needed to rapidly sterilize large quantities of meat, is still dangerously radioactive and will remain so for decades (This is not quite the same hazard as for nuclear power plant waste which remains dangerous for millenia.)

Cobalt is a metal and in plants like these they use rods, which are relatively easy to handle. So under ideal conditions, the radiation exposure of the community should be very small. On the other hand, Cobalt 60 is a gamma emitter which means that it may cause activation within the plant walls so that the plant will have to be disposed of as radioactive waste when it is closed.

The risk to eaters of the meat is questionable, but many believe there is no more than the risk that comes from cooking the meat (some chemical changes do occur). The great irony is that most of the bacteriological contamination of our meat comes from the industrial system for raising and slaughtering animals. Rather than try to remove the poop from our meat, they are trying to make the poop in our meat safe to eat (and tasty, too).

The real issue is the risk from transporting the new and waste cobalt into and out of the plant and the decommissioning of the plant. These are the most serious threats to the community.

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