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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.
Masatoshi Nakagawa, Yasusi Tsuboi
Nuclear Technology | Volume 91 | Number 3 | September 1990 | Pages 345-360
Technical Paper | Nuclear Fuel | doi.org/10.13182/NT90-A34456
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new analytical method is introduced to determine the distortion and mechanical behavior of fuel-pin bundles in a wire-wrapped fuel subassembly for liquid-metal fast breeder reactor cores. Each fuel pin is considered as an elastic beam using a model that takes wire tension effects into account. To represent the nonlinear stiffness resulting from contact between the pins and the duct, a fictitious element (the joint element) is inserted at the point of contact. This element can also represent friction effects. A substructure method and a block successive overrelaxation method are used to reduce computing time and memory requirements. This analytical method was incorporated into a three-dimensional finite element code called ÉTOILE. Sample calculations are presented that show that this code is capable of a reasonable simulation of the mechanical behavior of a fuel-pin bundle during irradiation. In particular, it has been shown that wire tension has a significant effect on the fuel-pin bundle equilibrium configuration.