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Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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.
F. Gandini, T. S. Bigelow, B. Becket, J. B. Caughman, D. Cox, C. Darbos, T. Gassmann, M. A. Henderson, O. Jean, K. Kajiwara, N. Kobayashi, C. Nazare, Y. Oda, T. Omori, D. Purohit, D. A. Rasmussen, D. M. S. Ronden, G. Saibene, K. Sakamoto, M. A. Shapiro, K. Takahashi, R. J. Temkin
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 59 | Number 4 | May 2011 | Pages 709-717
Technical Paper | Sixteenth Joint Workshop on Electron Cyclotron Emission and Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating (EC-16) | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-38
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The transmission line (TL) subsystem associated with the ITER electron cyclotron heating and current drive system has reached the conceptual design maturity. At this stage the responsibility of finalizing the design has been transferred from the ITER Organization to the U.S. Domestic Agency. The purpose of the TL is to transmit the microwaves generated by the 170-GHz gyrotrons installed in the radio-frequency building to the launchers located in one equatorial and four upper tokamak ports. Each TL consists of evacuated HE11 waveguides, direct-current breaks, power monitors, mitre bends, polarizers, switches, loads, and pumping sections and will have a typical length that ranges from 100 to 160 m. Overall transmission efficiency could be as high as 92% depending on the specific path between a given gyrotron and launcher. All components are required to be 2-MW compatible, and their layout and organization have been optimized for simplifying the maintenance accessibility and monitoring the primary tritium barrier integrity. Two different TL layouts are at the moment under study, to accommodate the two alternative options for the European sources: four 2-MW units or eight 1-MW units. In this paper the actual design is presented and the technical requirements are discussed.