Atomic garden or Gamma garden
Atomic garden or Gamma garden is an area in which crop plants are subjected to gamma irradiation. This area is enclosed by thick-high walls for the safety of organisms outside the area. The purpose of a gamma garden is to irradiate whole plants. The source of radiation is located in the centre, which is in circular outline. The intensity of radiation decreases with the increase in distance from the source. That is, Plants kept near the radiation Source receive the highest dose of radiation and those kept far away from the source receive much low dose of radiation. The area around the radiation source is divided into a number of concentric circles representing varying intensities of radiation. Plants are placed in a suitable position in the gamma garden depending upon their required intensity of radiation.
- The
first gamma garden was built in Long Island near New York, USA.
- The first gamma
garden in India was established at Bose Research Institute, Kolkata in 1959. In
1960, gamma garden was built in IARI, New Delhi and later at Bhabha Atomic
Research Centre, Trombay.
IARI-gamma garden had an area of 3 acres and surrounded by a heavy wall of 12 feet height and 3 feet thick. The source of gamma-ray was 6g of 60Co in the form of small pellets. These pellets were sealed in an aluminium capsule. The aluminium capsule was placed ina lead contained, since gamma rays can’t penetrate through lead. For irradiation, lead container was opened and simultaneously the aluminium capsule was also raised leading to the exposure of 60Co pellets. After irradiation, both aluminium capsule and lead container was closed. The opening and closing of lead container was assisted by a remote control device. There were two radiation monitors in the gamma garden. One radiation monitor was stably fixed to the inner side of the compound wall. The other one was a mobile radiation monitor which can be carried radially around the source to detect the exact intensity of ƴ - radiation at any particular site.
The gamma
garden at IARI and BARC were now dismantled, because there are other simpler
and cheaper mutagenesis methods.
