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.
G. L. McVay, C. Q. Buckwalter
Nuclear Technology | Volume 51 | Number 2 | December 1980 | Pages 123-129
Technical Paper | Argonne National Laboratory Specialists’ Workshop on Basic Research Needs for Nuclear Waste Management / Radioactive Waste | doi.org/10.13182/NT80-A32590
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The nature of glass-water interactions is complicated at best. Understanding these interactions and developing a predictive model is more difficult for complex waste containment glasses than for relatively simple glasses such as those typically reported in the literature. A common method of obtaining leach data is to use powdered samples. This procedure often gives results that cannot be used to predict the leaching characteristics of solid glass samples. This is due primarily to the pH differences encountered in the two types of experiments. Additionally, the effect of gamma irradiation, which is present in actual waste containing glasses, is to enhance the leach rates of most elements in the glass. Other parameters that affect leach rates and which must be incorporated in a predictive model include back reactions, solution flow rate, solubility limits, temperature, time, pH, and sample surface area to solution volume ratios.