Published September 2002 | Version v1
Journal article

Economic scale of utilization of radiation (I): Industry. Comparison between Japan and the U.S.A

  • 1. Osaka Univ., Institute of Science and Industrial Research, Ibaraki, Osaka (Japan)
  • 2. Nissin-High Voltage Co., Ltd., Accelerator Engineering Division, Kyoto (Japan)
  • 3. Pony Industry Co., Ltd., Osaka (Japan)
  • 4. Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Technology Research Institute, Production Technology Division, Tokyo (Japan)
  • 5. Applied Nucleonics Laboratory, Inc., Hitachinaka, Ibaraki (Japan)
  • 6. Japan Atomic Energy Research Inst., Oarai, Ibaraki (Japan). Oarai Research Establishment
  • 7. Japan Atomic Energy Research Inst., Takasaki, Gunma (Japan). Takasaki Radiation Chemistry Research Establishment

Description

Utilization of radiation in the industrial field has been enlarged due to the variety of technologies. In the present paper, the economic scale between the U.S.A. and Japan is compared with selected industrial parameters such as sterilization, semiconductors, radiographic testing (RT) and radial tire production because the very large industrial markets make a whole comparison difficult. The economic scale revealed was about 56b$ (1$=121 yen) for the U.S.A. and 39b$ for Japan. The former is large in magnitude by a factor of 1.4. With respect to the relative ratio versus the GDP, the former was 0.7% and 0.9% for the latter. This implied that utilization of radiation in industry is large in magnitude and is expected to be further developed. Regarding electron beam (EB) accelerators, for example, 648 units were installed in North America and 308 units for Japan during the past 29 years. The large number of the former is attributed to use in curing and heat shrinkable tubes (film). (author)

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology (Tokyo)
Journal Volume
39
Journal Issue
9
Journal Page Range
p. 1002-1007
ISSN
0022-3131

Optional Information

Notes
29 refs., 1 fig., 5 tabs.