BEIJING, Nov 17: Chinese scientists say they have developed a device capable of producing powerful electron beams that can destroy the potentially deadly anthrax bacteria in sealed mail.

The bacteria inside mail will die out once it passes through the radiation zone in the device, Saturday’s China Daily quoted Zhou Wenzhen, director of the laboratory that developed the device, as saying.

Zhou said he was confident the device can “sterilize all kinds of biological bacteria, including anthrax bacillus.”

It is safe for humans and leaves no radioactive traces in the mail, Zhou said.

The China Institute of Atomic Energy, which developed the device, and the Beijing Public Security Bureau have signed a contract to manufacture it, the report said.

But it will take at least four months and two million yuan (240,000 dollars) to turn the technology into a machine, the paper quoted experts involved in the project as saying.

Once created, the machine will be able to process up to 20,000 pieces of mail a day.

Four people have died from anthrax since the start of October in the United States.—AFP