Study on the sterilizing effects of fast neutron radiation on Bacillus subtilis

In order to investigate the neutron radiation sterilizing effect and influence factors including dose, dose rate, temperature and spore state, the Bacillus subtilis var. niger. spore were irradiated by the fast neutron radia-tion produced from Chinese Fast Burst Reactor II. The plate-count results indicate that the D10 value is 384.6Gy with the neutron radiation dose rate of 7.4Gy/min and the correlation between the dose and logarithm of survivors meets the function y=-0.0026x+10.462. When neutron dose kept 800Gy, the correlation between the dose rate and logarithm of survivors meets the function y=7.7414x-0.0834; spore livability declines under a high radiation temperature. The spore livability order is spore strip spore powder spore solution at the same neutron radiation. The conclusion can be made that neutron radiation has a higher sterilization effect than gamma ray and electron beam.