Economical scale of radiation applications in Japan

As a scale to quantify actual state of a thing, person, material and money are used in general, and money or economical scale has been frequently investigated on radiation application. As some investigations on annual sales (economical scale) of tire for car and germination protection of tomato had been tried to estimate in Japan, they were carried out only partially but not in general. On the other hand, in U.S.A. some general investigations were carried out, to report 421 billion dollars for nuclear energy application where its 80% was occupied by radiation application and remained 20 % was energy application (electricity). Therefore, JAERI established a special group (radiation frontier research group) aiming to investigate economical scale of radiation application in Japan to industrial, agricultural and medical field in general under cooperation of universities and private companies by receiving trust of the Science and Technology Agency. Here were described on basic concept on the investigation, its results, and total image on economical scale of radiation application and its comparison with that of energy application. (G.K.)