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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!
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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.
V. O’Donnell, T. Keya, A. Romans, G. Harvill, M. Andurkar, B. C. Prorok, S. M. Thompson, J. Gahl
Nuclear Technology | Volume 209 | Number 2 | February 2023 | Pages 254-260
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2022.2120321
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Experimentally characterizing radioactive materials can be time consuming and expensive. This is mainly due to the size requirements of inspected specimens. Due to the growing interest in using additively manufactured components in next-generation reactors, there is an urgent need to develop new accelerated testing techniques with regard to characterizing radiation damage. This will ensure a more timely certification of the unique material structures inherent to additively manufactured parts. In this study, we investigate a means to reduce the time investment, and thus the human exposure to radioactive specimens in need of experimental characterization. We determine the feasibility of using ultra-small specimens in lieu of much larger specimens to characterize bulk material properties before and after irradiation. Experiments were conducted to investigate this technique and compare it to conventional bulk irradiations and characterization activities. It was found that discernable radiation damage existed in the ultra-small specimens even after relatively short neutron irradiation times. The results also demonstrate decreased radiation hardening in additive manufactured Inconel 625 material relative to its wrought forms.