[en] The applicability of the rate theory to describe radiation damage processes is closely associated with the calculation of the various sink strengths. In this connection the effect of bulk recombination is usually neglected, because of the complexity of the problem. For this reason we present in this paper, for the first time, by means of the rigorous elastic-field model of a dislocation embedded in a lossy continuum, analytic expressions for the diffusion flux of irradiation-induced point defects into a dislocation, taking into account the elastic interaction, additional sinks and higher order bulk recombination effects. The resulting self-consistent formulae for the dislocation sink strengths clearly demonstrate the importance of the bulk recombination for the micro-structures of irradiated materials. In conjunction with the Harwell computer code VS5 it became clear that this new dislocation bias also leads to a change in the macrostructural observables. The order of magnitude of this effect emphasizes that neglecting bulk recombination as a general principle is not justified