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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.
Cheol Nam, Yong-Hwan Jeong, Youn-Ho Jung
Nuclear Technology | Volume 136 | Number 2 | November 2001 | Pages 158-168
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT01-A3235
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
During the last decade, the failure behavior of high-burnup fuel rods under a reactivity-initiated accident (RIA) condition has been a serious concern since fuel rod failures at low enthalpy have been observed. This has resulted in the reassessment of existing licensing criteria and failure-mode study. To address the issue, a statistics-based methodology is suggested to predict failure probability of irradiated fuel rods under an RIA. Based on RIA simulation results in the literature, a failure enthalpy correlation for an irradiated fuel rod is constructed as a function of oxide thickness, fuel burnup, and pulse width. Using the failure enthalpy correlation, a new concept of "equivalent enthalpy" is introduced to reflect the effects of the three primary factors as well as peak fuel enthalpy into a single damage parameter. Moreover, the failure distribution function with equivalent enthalpy is derived, applying a two-parameter Weibull statistical model. Finally, the sensitivity analysis is carried out to estimate the effects of burnup, corrosion, peak fuel enthalpy, pulse width, and cladding materials used.