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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.
L.J. Perkins, G.L. Kulcinski
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 4 | Number 2 | September 1983 | Pages 1107-1112
Blanket and First Wall Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A23006
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A self-consistent procedure has been established for economic design optimization of the lithium-lead (LiPb) blanket for the MARS tandem mirror reactor. The procedure is necessarily iterative and enables progress in blanket design to be assessed in terms of the minimization of an economic figure of merit F for the complete reactor system. Typical economic design questions regarding blanket and central cell parameters such as tritium breeding ratio, neutron energy multiplication factor, thermal cycle efficiency, blanket radial thickness, magnet radii, etc., can then be addressed in terms of their influence on overall system costs. This procedure is not necessarily specific to MARS and has general applicability to fusion reactor blanket design optimization. Application of the procedure resulted in a blanket with small (∼ 38 cm) radial thickness, highly enriched (90%) lithium, adequate tritium breeding ratio (1.14) and a neutron energy multiplication and thermal efficiency approaching those for blankets of considerably larger radial dimensions.