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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.
Duk Jin Kim, Jong Hyun Kim, K. F. Barry, Ho-Young Kwak
Nuclear Technology | Volume 176 | Number 3 | December 2011 | Pages 337-351
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT11-A13312
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Thermoeconomic analysis was performed for high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs) coupled with a steam methane reforming (SMR) plant in order to estimate the hydrogen production cost. Two possible HTGRs, a modified Brayton cycle HTGR (GT-HTGR) coupled with an SMR plant and a modified steam cycle HTGR (SC-HTGR) coupled with an SMR plant, were considered in this study. In these analyses, mass and energy conservation were applied strictly to each component of the system. Also, quantitative balances of the exergy and the exergetic cost for each component and for the whole system were carefully considered. The hydrogen production cost was estimated to be about $0.825/kg [$7.25/one million Btu (MM Btu)] for the GT-HTGR-SMR system and $0.728/kg ($6.41/MM Btu) for the ST-HTGR-SRM system with a uranium fuel cost of $8.40/MWh. The hydrogen production cost estimated in this study is considerably less than the economic target of $1.70/kg ($14.96/MM Btu), indicating that hydrogen production using HTGR with an SMR plant has great economic potential.