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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.
Jiaqi Zhang, Akifumi Iwamoto, Keisuke Shigemori, Masanori Hara, Kohei Yamanoi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 80 | Number 3 | May 2024 | Pages 550-557
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2023.2197810
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Fuel pellets made of a solid deuterium-tritium (D-T) mixture are supplied for inertial confinement fusion. Characterization of the D-T mixture is fundamental for the design and production of high-quality fuel pellets. However, during the phase transition, isotopologue fractionation may lead to fractional crystallization in the solid phase of the hydrogen isotopologue mixture. If this phenomenon occurs in solid D-T fuel, it will reduce the reaction efficiency of nuclear fusion. Currently, there is no effective observation method for fractional crystallization. This study aims to quantify the degree of fractional crystallization of the hydrogen isotopologues mixture in the solid phase using the refractive index measurement. For this method, refractive index information on the hydrogen isotopologues is necessary, therefore the temperature and wavelength dependences of the refractive index of hydrogen isotopologues need to be measured. Then, using the refractive index distribution of the solid D-T will show the composition distribution of isotopologues for assessing the fractional crystallization. Particularly, as far as we know, this is the first time that the measured values of the refractive index versus wavelength of solid D2 have been obtained. Understanding the wavelength dependence of the refractive index for the dispersion compensation allows for a wider application of the fractionated crystallographic observation method.