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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.
Dong H. Nguyen, Robert G. Bennett
Nuclear Technology | Volume 14 | Number 3 | June 1972 | Pages 284-291
Technical Paper | Instrument | doi.org/10.13182/NT72-A31118
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A crystal detector system, composed of a small LiI(Eu) crystal, highly enriched in 6Li, and a flexible light pipe, has been used to determine the fast- and thermal-neutron distributions resulting from a Pu-Be neutron source. The thermal-neutron flux is determined by the cadmium difference technique. It is found that the thermal flux thus determined agrees well with the two-group diffusion solution and with absolute foil measurement, but gamma-ray backgrounds cause serious problems in the fast flux determination by crystal. It is also found that the non-rigid light pipe offers a great deal of flexibility in the measuring process. The high efficiency in thermal-neutron measurement obtained (41%) implies that smaller crystals or longer light pipes can be used, thereby improving the accessibility of the detector. The crystal detector used is also sufficiently sensitive to follow the small change in flux magnitude with increasing temperature.