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.
Tadashi Yoshida
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 63 | Number 4 | August 1977 | Pages 376-390
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE77-A27055
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The gross theory of beta decay developed by Takahashi and Yamada has been applied to an estimation of nuclear decay heat of short-lived fission products, that is, to the average energies of emitted beta particles and gamma rays and the half-lives. For short-lived fission products for which no experimental information is available, calculations have been performed with the most probable value of a parameter Q00, which represents the energy of the lowest level actually fed by the beta transition. The results have been summarized in the form of several simple formulas, which are functions of the Q value and mass number of the nuclide in question. When the half-life is determined experimentally, the certainty of the calculated results for the average released energies can be improved by means of a search for the best Q00 value based on the measured half-life for each nuclide. Evaluation of confidence bands is also performed for the calculated results.