ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Jul 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2025
Nuclear Technology
August 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
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.
C. J. Mueller, J. K. Vaurio
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 69 | Number 2 | February 1979 | Pages 264-278
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE79-A20616
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper describes the basic equations and solution techniques of a collection of heat transfer and coolant voiding dynamics models that have been developed and successfully applied to simulate hypothetical accidents in liquid-metal-cooled fast breeder reactors (LMFBRs) to the point of permanent subcriticality or to the initiation of a prompt-critical excursion. These models emphasize analytic and integral solution techniques to minimize computational time and have been programmed into the SACO fast-running accident analysis computer code. The comparisons of SACO results to analogous SAS3D results used to qualify these models are illustrated and discussed. The fast-running nature of these models makes them an ideal sensitivity analysis tool for use in probabilistic evaluations of LMFBR accidents. Their use in this application is illustrated.