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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.
Denise Neudecker, Rudolf Frühwirth, Helmut Leeb
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 170 | Number 1 | January 2012 | Pages 54-60
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE11-20
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The occurrence of unexpected mean values in statistical analyses of experimental data, known as Peelle's pertinent puzzle in nuclear data evaluation, is revisited. It is shown in terms of Bayesian statistics, it is not caused exclusively by nonlinearities but is due to improper estimates of covariance matrices of experiments. Applying the correct covariance matrix leads to the exact posterior expectation value and variance for an arbitrary number of uncorrelated measurement points that are normalized with the same quantity.