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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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!
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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.
Kaushik Banerjee, William R. Martin
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 170 | Number 3 | March 2012 | Pages 234-250
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE10-77
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The kernel density estimator (KDE) is used to represent Monte Carlo tallies. Two new neutron flux estimators and their variances are developed, namely the KDE collision and KDE track-length tallies. These new estimators are capable of estimating the flux and its variance at any point within a given domain without any bin structure. The strength of these two estimators is illustrated with numerical examples in one- and two-dimensional geometries. Convergence properties of the KDE estimators are discussed and the KDE estimators are compared with the functional expansion tally (FET) and the conventional histogram tally. The results show that the KDE tallies compare favorably with the FET and histogram tallies with respect to accuracy and convergence rate. Disadvantages of KDE estimators are also discussed, and some future research scopes in this area are identified.
