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September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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.
Farrokh Najmabadi, the ARIES Team
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 47 | Number 3 | April 2005 | Pages 406-413
Technical Paper | Fusion Energy - Experimental Devices and Advanced Designs | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A722
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A detailed and integrated study of compact stellarators as power plants, ARIES-CS, was initiated recently to advance our understanding of attractive compact stellarator configurations and to define key R&D areas. We have completed phase 1 of ARIES-CS study - our results are described in this paper. We have identified several promising stellarator configurations. High particle loss of these configurations is a critical issue. It appears that devices with an overall size similar to those envisioned for tokamak power plants are possible. A novel approach was developed in ARIES-CS in which the blanket at the critical areas of minimum stand-off is replaced by a highly efficient WC-based shield. In this manner, we have been able to reduce the minimum stand-off by ~20%-30% compared to a uniform radial build which was assumed in previous studies. Our examination of engineering options indicates that overall assembly and maintenance procedure plays a critical role in identifying acceptable engineering design and has a major impact on the optimization of a plasma/coil configuration.