Abstract This work describes mass recovery processes of flooded archival materials at industrial scale. The presence of fungi on paper represents a threat to the integrity of the document because they degrade cellulose, one of the main components of paper. Gamma radiation treatments are investigated as mass disinfection agents for their high penetrating power, speed of treatment, and absence of risk due to chemical residuals. We compared two different recovery processes: thermal drying followed by gamma irradiation and gamma irradiation followed by thermal drying. Both these processes were conducted simultaneously on naturally contaminated archival items and on paper specimens artificially contaminated with test species. Efficacy was assessed by culture method and ATP assay, right after the treatments and after four years of storage at room temperature. Coupling gamma irradiation with a drying step with dry heat at 55–60 °C reduces the fungal loads on natural items up to levels close to the detection limits, and the reduction is maintained after four years. On artificial specimens, spore germination is completely inhibited, mycelia growth is also highly affected, but the melanised test species appear to be more resistant. A synergistic effect between gamma irradiation, water content, and thermal drying is highlighted in this paper.

中文翻译：

---

伽马辐射对淹没档案材料的大规模处理

摘要 这项工作描述了工业规模的淹没档案材料的大规模回收过程。纸张上的真菌对文件的完整性构成威胁，因为它们会降解纤维素，纤维素是纸张的主要成分之一。伽马射线治疗因其高穿透力、治疗速度和无化学残留风险而被作为大规模消毒剂进行研究。我们比较了两种不同的回收过程：热干燥后伽马辐照和伽马辐照后热干燥。这两个过程同时对自然污染的档案物品和被测试物种人工污染的纸质标本进行。通过培养方法和ATP测定评估功效，治疗后立即在室温下储存四年后。将伽马辐照与 55–60 °C 干热干燥步骤相结合，可将天然物品上的真菌负荷降低至接近检测限的水平，并且这种降低在四年后保持不变。在人工标本上，孢子萌发被完全抑制，菌丝体生长也受到很大影响，但黑色化的测试物种似乎更具抵抗力。本文强调了伽马辐照、含水量和热干燥之间的协同效应。孢子萌发被完全抑制，菌丝体生长也受到很大影响，但黑色素化的测试物种似乎更具抵抗力。本文强调了伽马辐照、含水量和热干燥之间的协同效应。孢子萌发被完全抑制，菌丝体生长也受到很大影响，但黑色素化的测试物种似乎更具抵抗力。本文强调了伽马辐照、含水量和热干燥之间的协同效应。