What are the real financial costs of food irradiation?
A food irradiation facility, depending on type and size, will cost from $2 million to over $10 million for a larger facility, as calculated back in 1990. These costs don’t take into account transporting the foods large distances to and from centralized irradiators, the cost of the land, the cost of the initial cobalt-60 (which can add another million dollars), the cost of ongoing cobalt-60 replacement, costs of storage of radioactive material, disposal, and radioactive spill clean up, worker safety training, and government regulation of facilities. Any food irradiation facility using nuclear material will require special containment and storage units and precautions. Cobalt-60 is always “ON” and that means irradiation facilities need to be operated 24 hours a day, every day of the year, for maximum efficiency.
