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Conference Spotlight
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.
M. Atarashi-Andoh, H. Amano, M. Ichimasa, Y. Ichimasa
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 41 | Number 3 | May 2002 | Pages 427-431
Biology | Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology Tsukuba, Japan November 12-16, 2001 | doi.org/10.13182/FST02-A22625
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The conversion rate of tritiated water (HTO) in plants' leaves to organically bound tritium (OBT) in their edible parts in the open air was obtained for several vegetables (komatsuna, radish and cherry tomato) during a chronic tritiated hydrogen (HT) release experiment at Chalk River in 1994. During the experiment, HT gas was continuously released to the atmosphere at the cultivated site for 12 days, and HTO and OBT concentrations in cultivated plants were measured. For plants' leaves, the conversion rate of HTO to OBT was about 0.2 (% hr−1), but it varied with their growth stage. A chamber experiment was also carried out in laboratory for comparison. The chamber experiment results showed that the conversion rate under artificial lights was half that in the field experiment.
