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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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.
Ana M. Schwendt, Arthur Nobile, Peter L. Gobby, Warren P. Steckle, Jr., Denis G. Colombant, John D. Sethian, Daniel Thomas Goodin, Gottfried Ernst Alfred Besenbruch
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 43 | Number 2 | March 2003 | Pages 217-229
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST03-A262
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The tritium inventory of direct drive inertial fusion energy (IFE) target filling facilities is examined in the interest of minimizing the tritium inventory. A model is described that has been developed to evaluate the tritium inventory of the target filling process as a function of filling and layering parameters, as well as target design parameters. Previous studies by A. Nobile et al. showed that the temperature and the fill system void fraction have a significant effect on the tritium inventory. The current study uses the model to examine the effect of deuterium-tritium (DT) ice layering time and density of the CH foam in the target on the tritium inventory. The study shows that increasing the foam density and decreasing the DT ice layering time significantly reduce the tritium inventory. Fortunately, one-dimensional target design calculations indicate that the foam density in the direct drive target can be increased to ~200 mg/cm3 without significant degradation of the target yield. Having evaluated and minimized the theoretical tritium inventory, calculations were performed with more realistic batch filling scenarios. The inventories associated with "real" filling scenarios approach the theoretical minimum inventory as the number of batches is increased, resulting in tritium inventories that seem acceptable for future IFE target DT filling facilities.