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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
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.
I. Funaki, K. Ueno, H. Yamakawa, Y. Nakayama, T. Kimura, H. Horisawa (19P04)
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 51 | Number 2 | February 2007 | Pages 226-228
Technical Paper | Open Magnetic Systems for Plasma Confinement | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1357
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Magnetic sail (MagSail) is a next-generation deep space propulsion system, which uses the energy of the solar wind. The MagSail produces an artificial magnetic field and captures the energy of the solar wind plasma to propell a spacecraft in the direction of the solar wind. In order to conduct a scale-model experiment of the plasma flow of a MagSail, we developed a solar wind simulator based on a magnetoplasmadynamic arcjet, which obtained a high density (~1018 m-3) and high velocity (~60 km/s) plasma flow in a quasi-steady mode of about 1 ms duration. Based on scaling considerations, a solenoidal coil (18 mm in diameter and the magnetic flux density at the coil center ~ 1.9 T) was designed and was immersed into the plasma flow. A magnetic cavity, which is very similar to that of the geomagnetic field, was observed, although the magnetic cavity of MagSail is usually much smaller than the geomagnetic cavity of the Earth.