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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.
Toshihide Takai, Tomohiro Furukawa, Hidemasa Yamano
Nuclear Technology | Volume 205 | Number 9 | September 2019 | Pages 1164-1174
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2019.1607136
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper describes evaluation results of thermophysical properties of stainless steel (SS) containing 5 mass % boron carbide (B4C) in its solid phase. First, the authors synthesized SS-B4C samples with emphasis on 5 mass % B4C and SS using a hot press method and then evaluated its homogeneity in several ways, such as chemical composition analysis, metallographic structure observation, and micro X-ray diffraction. This study also evaluated the density and the specific heat and thermal conductivity of the SS-B4C sample and found that the density becomes lower and the temperature dependence of the density decreased as the temperature rose compared to that of stainless steel Type 316L (SS316L) used as a reactor material. The specific heat became slightly higher than that of SS316L and showed similar temperature dependence up to 1073 K. Unexpectedly, the thermal conductivity became lower than that of SS316L and showed similar temperature dependence up to 1273 K.