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.
Risto Vanhanen
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 179 | Number 4 | April 2015 | Pages 411-422
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE14-75
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
We propose a novel application of a method to compute the nearest positive semidefinite matrix. When applied to covariance matrices of multigroup nuclear data, the method removes unphysical components of the covariances while preserving the physical components of the original covariance matrix. The result is a mathematically proper covariance matrix.
We show that the method preserves the so-called zero sum rule of covariances of distributions in exact arithmetic. The results also hold for typical cases of finite precision arithmetic. We identify conditions that might damage the zero sum rule.
Rounding can distort the eigenvalues of a symmetric matrix. We give a known bound on how large distortions can occur due to round-off. Consequently, there is a known upper bound on how large negative eigenvalues can be attributed to round-off error. Current evaluations and processing codes do produce larger negative eigenvalues.
Three practical examples are processed and analyzed. We demonstrate that satisfactory results can be achieved.
We discuss briefly the relevance of the method, its properties, and alternative approaches. The method can be used as a part of a quality assurance program and would be a valuable addition to nuclear data processing codes.