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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.
D. V. Altiparmakov, Dj. Tomašević
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 105 | Number 3 | July 1990 | Pages 256-270
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE90-A19190
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A higher order nodal diffusion method is formulated, based on variational principle, Kantorovich’s variational method, and the patch test. In this framework, the relationship between finite element and nodal methods is discussed and the differences are pointed out. General, transverse integrated quasi-one-dimensional nodal equations are derived and matrix representation is given. In addition, a comparison with a similar approach is shown. A numerical solution is carried out using polynomial expansion of the source term and the corresponding analytic solution in alternating directions. Calculations of two-dimensional International Atomic Energy Agency and Biblis benchmark problems are performed and compared with results from the literature. It is shown that the first-order approximation yields the same order of accuracy as the standard nodal methods with quadratic leakage approximation, while the second-order approximation is considerably better.