ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
Latest Magazine Issues
Jul 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2025
Nuclear Technology
August 2025
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.
Thomas E. Stephenson and Sol Pearlstein
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 32 | Number 3 | June 1968 | Pages 377-384
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE68-A20220
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Early work ascertained that the Mn total cross section could not be fit by the Breit-Wigner single-level formula. Later work showed that a satisfactory fit below 10 keV could be achieved by the use of R-matrix analysis. Here, recent resonance data and the Breit-Wigner multilevel formula are used to fit the experimental data from 0.01 eV to 50 keV. Two bound levels and several positive energy levels are introduced in order to produce very good agreement with the measured total cross section. The parametric representation of the 55Mn cross section yields calculated values of 13.4 and 15 b for the capture 2200 m/sec cross section and resonance integral, and 1.94, 1.71, and 556 b for the thermal-bound atom, coherent-scattering cross section, and scattering resonance integral, respectively, all values being in good agreement with experiment. Qualitative agreement is obtained with polarization data.
