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September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
The RAIN scale: A good intention that falls short
Radiation protection specialists agree that clear communication of radiation risks remains a vexing challenge that cannot be solved solely by finding new ways to convey technical information.
Earlier this year, an article in Nuclear News described a new radiation risk communication tool, known as the Radiation Index, or, RAIN (“Let it RAIN: A new approach to radiation communication,” NN, Jan. 2025, p. 36). The authors of the article created the RAIN scale to improve radiation risk communication to the general public who are not well-versed in important aspects of radiation exposures, including radiation dose quantities, units, and values; associated health consequences; and the benefits derived from radiation exposures.
V. I. Volosov
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 59 | Number 1 | January 2011 | Pages 214-216
doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A11613
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Publications considered a project of aneutronic reactor (the P11B reaction) based on the asymmetric centrifugal trap (ACT), the energy of protons and alpha particles leaving the reactor subjected to direct transformation to electrical energy.These works considered a project of such a reactor under some simplifying assumptions. The most significant of them is that of the scheme of the intermediate Be nucleus decay into 2 alpha particles through the ground state, which determined the energy spectrum of these particles. However, there are two channels of decay of this nucleus in this reaction, i.e., through the ground state of Be and through its excited state, see Fig. 1. It can be seen from calculation in that the probability that the reaction goes through the excited state is two orders higher than the ground state variant.It significantly changes the shape of the energy spectrum of alpha particles and makes it necessary to somehow change the scheme of their energy recovery in this project, the scheme of realization of the main process (the P11B reaction) remaining unchanged.