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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.
D. G. Gritton, D. J. Christie, R. W. Holloway, B. T. Merritt, J. A. Oicles, K. Whitham, R. B. Wilcox
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 4 | Number 2 | September 1983 | Pages 955-960
Inertial Confinement Fusion | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A22982
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Novette is a large, two beam, two wavelength laser facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The Novette laser projected performance exceeds that of the 20 arm Shiva laser and the frequency multiplying capability provides more efficient target interaction. Novette is comprised of two arms of the Nova laser. New designs allow these two arms to exceed the performance of the 20 arms of Shiva. Assembling these two arms on an accelerated schedule allowed the experimental program to continue with minimum interruption. The laser has been operational since January 1983. More efficient laser amplifiers allowed the performance to be achieved with half the capacitor bank used on Shiva. The pulse power for Novette uses high-density capacitors, instrumented dual ignitron switches, 100 KVA power supplies and a control system based on LSI/11 Front End Processors (FEP's) and fiberoptic links. The bank contains 11 MJ of stored energy at 22 KV. Construction of the pulse power system took a year. The laser was completed in about 15 months. This paper is a summary of the pulse power systems for Novette; the flashlamp power system, the pulsers for the various optical shutters and the pulse power control system.