Crash Course Recap: Does e-beam make my products radioactive?

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDw35w1VLTY[/embedyt]

 

One question we get a lot is: Does e-beam make my products radioactive?

The short answer:

No!

The (slightly) longer answer: 

Here at E-BEAM, we use medium voltage accelerators to create a powerful beam of electrons. The beam is scanned back and forth to create a curtain of fast – like really fast, 99%-the-speed-of-light fast – electrons, which shower and safely ionize the materials they strike.

Radioactivity can be defined as the property possessed by some elements (such as uranium) and isotopes (such as cobalt-60) of spontaneously emitting energetic particles by the disintegration of their atomic nuclei. (Say that 10x fast!)

Medium voltage e-beam processing produces reactions at the molecular level, rather than at the nucleus of the atom. So, materials do not become radioactive.

E-beam technology is electrically generated and does not rely on radioisotopes, which means there’s no radioactive waste or toxic compounds involved.

Think Tony Stark vs Bruce Banner.

And, what’s more, once we’re done processing the product, we can turn the accelerator off with the flip of a switch.