[Use of photonuclear reactions for studying the biological action of slow heavy ions]

Since ranges of low-energy heavy ions are too little the study of their action on cells is only possible using indirect irradiation, for instance, with neurons which form low--energy heavy ions uniformly inside a cell. In our studies we used photonuclear reactions which occur upon irradiation of a bio-object with high energy bremsstrahlung. The advantage of this method over the method based on the usage of neutrons has been demonstrated. The data are submitted obtained after exposure of yeast cells to photonuclear products.