ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
Latest Magazine Issues
Jul 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2025
Nuclear Technology
August 2025
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, Y. Kajimura, Y. Ashida, H. Nishida, Y. Oshio, I. Shinohara, H. Yamakawa
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 63 | Number 1 | May 2013 | Pages 168-171
doi.org/10.13182/FST13-A16897
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Plasma equilibrium in an artificial magnetosphere in interplanetary space is proposed to apply the idea of plasma equilibrium for magnetic sail spacecraft, which obtains a thrust force based on the interaction between solar wind particles and an artificial magnetosphere made by electromagnets onboard spacecraft. It is numerically shown that when releasing a low-velocity plasma from a magnetic sail spacecraft, an equatorial ring-current is excited around the spacecraft, which makes a larger magnetosphere and correspondingly a larger thrust level becomes possible. In our preliminary MHD and particle simulations, it is shown that thrust by magnetic sail using plasma equilibrium is more than three times larger than that of pure magnetic sail without releasing plasma, and this result shows promising feature of on magnetic sail using plasma equilibrium.