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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
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.
Eric Lukosi
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 188 | Number 3 | December 2017 | Pages 294-302
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2017.1367248
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper presents the computational performance of microfluidic channels (MFCs) within a semiconductor detector to monitor changes in the elemental and isotopic composition of a UOX pressurized water reactor used nuclear fuel dissolved in a KCl/LiCl molten salt. The results indicate that the use of MFC limits alpha energy loss sufficiently enough to use energy windowing techniques in spectral analysis. It was found that elemental and isotopic changes as low as 1% may be feasible, with the time to detection (TTD) ranging from seconds to hours. The TTD is inversely dependent on the number of MFCs within the sensor and the activity of the element/isotope undergoing concentration transients.
