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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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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.
Constantine P. Tzanos
Nuclear Technology | Volume 41 | Number 2 | December 1978 | Pages 195-206
Technical Paper | Extraction of Energy From Nuclear Fuels Without Reprocessing to Separate Plutonium / Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT78-A32105
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An efficient optimization method has been developed that determines simultaneously beginning-of-cycle (BOC) enrichment distribution and the control rod programming in reactors that lose reactivity during burnup such that (a) reactor criticality and a desired power distribution are satisfied throughout the cycle and (b) all the control rods are withdrawn at end-of-cycle (EOC). The method uses (a) an iterative scheme of uncontrolled burnup calculations [and linear programming (LP) for more than two enrichment zones] to determine a good approximation of the EOC reactor composition that satisfies reactor criticality and the desired power distribution and (b) LP in a reversed burnup process starting from the EOC conditions to determine the control rod programming and the BOC enrichment distribution.