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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
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.
K. Tomlinson, D. G. Schroen
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 63 | Number 2 | March-April 2013 | Pages 288-295
Technical Paper | Selected papers from 20th Target Fabrication Meeting, May 20-24, 2012, Santa Fe, NM, Guest Editor: Robert C. Cook | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-A16352
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Preshot characterization of the thickness and form of material samples in targets for dynamic materials properties experiments presents unique challenges. Because of design limitations, the measurement tools currently used introduce increasing error as samples deviate from perfect flatness or thickness uniformity. Contact measurements such as height gages and micrometers, for example, are insensitive to thickness variations occurring over spatial scales smaller than the contact probes. In addition, they measure thickness but not form and often damage samples. Standard confocal microscopes overcome some of these problems but can only measure form on the side of the sample that they see. Also, by design, they consistently overestimate thickness because form errors on the side of the sample against the reference surface always prevent perfect contact with it. We are developing a technique that may prove to be superior to both of these methods at characterizing both thickness and form of samples with both imperfect flatness and nonuniform thickness using only an interferometric optical profiler, an inexpensive fixture, a gage block, and a commercial three-dimensional modeling software. The end result is a computer model of the actual sample.