From research to industry - the establishment of a radiation processing industry in South Africa

In the late sixties the South African Atomic Energy Board in pursuing its objectives to promote the peaceful application of nuclear energy in general, established a research group with the specific purpose of investigating and developing radiation processing as a new technique. During the early years it was realised that the economic and technological facets of establishing a new industry were equally important and, in addition to fundamental research, strong emphasis was placed on the necessity of marketing this new technology. Although the initial emphasis was put on gamma sterilization, and today still forms the backbone of the radiation processing industry, the promising fields of polymer modification and food irradiation hold a lot of promise in the radiation processing industry. Following ten years of successfully introducing and providing a radiation service, the South African Atomic Energy Board in 1980 decided to transfer its service to the private sector. These developments in South Africa are a good sample of how a small country, through initial government involvement, can acquire a sophisticated new private industry. (author)