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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.
Hisao Yamakoshi
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 88 | Number 2 | October 1984 | Pages 110-122
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE84-A28395
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The radial dose rate distributions D(rd) around a cask can be described well by the following relation: where H is the cask height, rs is the radius of the cask surface, and rd is the distance between the cask axis and the detector position. The quantity J is described by elliptic integrals of the first kind. This expression is a generating function for an empirical description of the rd dependence of the radiation dose rate distributions around a cask.
