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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 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.
Tong Kyu Park, Han Gyu Joo, Chang Hyo Kim
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 176 | Number 2 | February 2014 | Pages 226-239
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE12-41
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The multiobjective simulated annealing (MOSA)–based fuel assembly loading pattern (LP) optimization method, employing the discontinuous penalty function (DPF), is extended for multicycle applications by introducing an adaptively constrained discontinuous penalty function (ACDPF). A discontinuous point in the penalty function is adaptively shifted to a better direction during the course of MOSA such that the search can be more efficient. The advantages of the ACDPF-based MOSA algorithm over the original DPF-based algorithm are first examined with a real single-cycle LP optimization problem of an operating reactor, as well as with a simple LP optimization problem that has known solutions. A direct multicycle LP optimization method is then formulated with an application to the first four cycles of the Younggwang Nuclear Unit 4 (YGN4) core. The rearrangement method is devised as a fuel shuffling method that can avoid drastic changes in the LPs of the subsequent cycles of a seed cycle. It is demonstrated that the ACDPF-based MOSA combined with the rearrangement method produces quite effectively the optimum LP sets for the four cycles, which outperform the LPs generated by a series of cyclewise optimizations as well as the actual LPs of YGN4 that were already used in the plant.