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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 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.
Klara Insulander Björk, Aneta Herman, Marcus Hedberg, Christian Ekberg
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 193 | Number 11 | November 2019 | Pages 1255-1264
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2019.1614368
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Uranium nitride (UN) is considered as nuclear reactor fuel because of, among other reasons, its high uranium density and its high thermal conductivity. Its main drawback is that it relatively easily dissolves in hot water, which is particularly problematic when it is used in water-cooled reactors. One possible remedy to this is to add some corrosion inhibitor as dopant to the UN matrix. A number of dopants have been identified that have the potential to inhibit the dissolution process, and their respective merits have been investigated both by neutronic simulations and dissolution experiments. It is concluded that chromium is the most promising candidate.