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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.
Richard Sanchez
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 177 | Number 1 | May 2014 | Pages 19-34
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE12-95
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
We investigate the degeneracy of the first-order PN equations and construct interface and boundary conditions that ensure a unique solution. Our technique is based on establishing an equivalence between the first- and second-order PN equations and showing that the (regular) second-order equations with opposite parity to N are nondegenerate. Assuming bounded angular flux moments and sources, we derive interface and boundary conditions for the regular second-order equations that, via the equivalence, are those to be used with the first-order PN equations. While providing independent derivations, our results reproduce those derived using solid harmonic expansions by Davison and Rumyantsev in the 1950s.
