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.
Matthew P. Simones, Veera R. Gutti, Ryan M. Meyer, Sudarshan K. Loyalka
Nuclear Technology | Volume 176 | Number 2 | November 2011 | Pages 211-226
Technical Paper | Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT10-10
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The role of charge on aerosol evolution and hence the nuclear source term has been an issue of interest, and there is a need for both experimental techniques and modeling for quantifying this role. Our focus here is on further exploration of a tandem differential mobility analyzer (TDMA) technique to simultaneously measure both the size and charge (positive, negative, and neutral) dependent aerosol distributions. We have generated graphite, gold, silver, and palladium nanoparticles (aerosol) using a spark generator. We measure the electrical mobility-size distributions for these aerosols using a TDMA, and from these data we deduce the full charge-size distributions. We observe asymmetry in the particle size distributions for negative and positive charges. This asymmetry could have a bearing on the dynamics of charged aerosols, indicating that the assumption of symmetry for size distributions of negatively and positively charged particles in source term simulations may not always be appropriate. Also, the experimental technique should find applications in measurements of aerosol rate processes that are affected by both particle charge and size (e.g., coagulation, deposition, and resuspension), and hence in modeling and simulation of the nuclear source term.