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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.
M. Bradbury, R. Ratnayake (NuScale Power)
Proceedings | 2018 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2018) | Charlotte, NC, April 8-11, 2018 | Pages 165-171
Data from Critical Heat Flux (CHF) and Critical Power (CP) tests are used for developing CHF and CP (or dryout) correlations to predict the maximum allowable heat flux at points of operational interest. CHF and CP tests are conducted using heater rod arrays representing fuel rods in a partial fuel bundle. Heat is directly generated in these heater rods depicting the axial power distributions of interest. The test rod array is housed in a slender vertical channel of metallic walls that are generally unheated. During testing, part of the heat generated in the heater rods is lost to the environment through the channel walls. Heat loss through the channel wall has the potential to favor channel thermal-hydraulic (T-H) conditions, and thereby make power measurements non-conservative. Typically, a single conservative estimate of the heat loss obtained from a separate isothermal test of the same test configuration is used regardless of the reactor conditions tested during a test campaign. This paper investigates the basis for the use of a single value for channel heat loss under varying reactor conditions. Results indicate that this practice has sound bases when applied with appropriate conservatisms.