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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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!
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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. Rochman, W. Zwermann, S. C. van der Marck, A. J. Koning, H. Sjöstrand, P. Helgesson, B. Krzykacz-Hausmann
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 177 | Number 3 | July 2014 | Pages 337-349
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE13-32
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new and faster Total Monte Carlo (TMC) method for the propagation of nuclear data uncertainties in Monte Carlo nuclear simulations is presented (the fast TMC method). It addresses the main drawback of the original TMC method, namely, the necessary large time multiplication factor compared to a single calculation. With this new method, Monte Carlo simulations can now be accompanied with an uncertainty propagation (other than statistical), with small additional calculation time. The fast TMC method is presented and compared with the TMC and fast GRS methods for criticality and shielding benchmarks and burnup calculations. Finally, to demonstrate the efficiency of the method, uncertainties due to uncertainties in 235,238U, 239Pu, and thermal scattering nuclear data, for the local deposited power in 12.7 million cells, are calculated for a full-size reactor core.
