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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.
Daojie Dong, George F. Vandegrift
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 126 | Number 2 | June 1997 | Pages 213-223
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE97-A24474
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The recent progress on the alkaline peroxide processing of low-enriched uranium targets for the production of 99Mo, a parent nuclide of the widely used medical isotope 99mTc, is reported. Kinetic studies were undertaken to investigate the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide in alkaline solution in contact with a uranium metal surface. It was found that the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide essentially follows the kinetic trend of uranium dissolution and can be classified into two regimes, depending on the hydroxide concentration. In the low-base regime (<0.2 M), both the hydrogen peroxide and hydroxide concentrations affect the rate of peroxide decomposition. In the high-base regime (>0.2 M), the rate of peroxide decomposition is independent of alkali concentration. When the acid/base equilibrium between H2O2 and O2H− is taken into account, the overall rate of hydrogen peroxide disappearance can be described as a 0.25th order reaction with respect to hydrogen peroxide concentration over NaOH concentrations ranging from 0.01 to 5 M. Empirical kinetics models are proposed and discussed.