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Costs of the effective energy produced by these sources is a major obstacle in the development of food-preservation processes.

Estimated production costs of radiation energy from machine and nuclide sources range from $1 to $10 per Aj.

Conventional energy for processing foods is available in the range of at most a few cents per kwhr for electric power and the equivalent of a few mills per kwhr for process steam.

Radiation, therefore, is at an initial cost disadvantage even though only 1 to 10 per cent as much radiation energy as heat energy is required for radiopasteurization or radiosterilization.

What are the possibilities of lowered radiation production costs for the future??

It has been estimated that for applications on a megawatt scale costs might reach values in the neighborhood of 10 cents per kwhr for large-scale accelerators or for gamma radiation generated in a reactor core.

No comparable reductions in the cost of nuclide radiation are foreseen.

Such projections, however, appear highly speculative and the capacities involved are far beyond those foreseen for food-preservation facilities.