Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
We demonstrate that electrons at energies below the threshold for electronic excitation (<3 eV) effectively decompose gas phase uracil generating a mobile hydrogen radical and the corresponding closed shell uracil fragment anion (U-H) ^-. The reaction is energetically driven by the large electron affinity of the (U-H) radical. This observation has significant consequences for the molecular picture of radiation damage, i. e. , genotoxic effects or damage of living cells due to the secondary component of high energy radiation.
Hanel et al. (Thu,) studied this question.