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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 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!
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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.
Shawn R. Jensen, Aaron E. Craft, Glen C. Papaioannou, Wyatt W. Empie, Blaine R. Ward, Lee A. Batt
Nuclear Technology | Volume 205 | Number 10 | October 2019 | Pages 1325-1335
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2019.1605780
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Transient Reactor Test (TREAT) radiography system is used to perform neutron radiography of fuels, experiments, and other specimens before and after irradiation within the TREAT reactor. The TREAT neutron radiography facility performed approximately 5000 radiographs by the spring of 1977. Originally built in 1958, the TREAT Facility was in operation until it was placed in a shutdown status in 1994. Following the Fukishima disaster and seeing a need for enhanced accident-tolerant fuels, the U.S. Department of Energy decided to restart the TREAT Facility and resume transient operations. In November 2017, the TREAT reactor was successfully restarted and is currently performing operational testing in preparation for initial experiment irradiations and transient testing. This paper discusses efforts to reactivate the TREAT neutron radiography facility. To characterize the neutron beam, gold foil activation measurements were made to determine an average neutron flux and flux profile. An open beam image provides the information about variations in the beam profile. A series of system qualification radiographs have been acquired to determine the effective image acquisition parameters, resulting image quality, and the relationships between the two.