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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.
K. H. G. Ashbee
Nuclear Technology | Volume 95 | Number 3 | September 1991 | Pages 366-371
Technical Note | Radioactive Waste Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT91-A34584
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Whenever a volume expansion ΔV works against a confining pressure p, such as that which is generated by water of crystallization at encapsulated salts, it is appropriate to use Clapeyron’s equation to estimate the temperature coefficient of that pressure: where ΔVh and ΔSh are, respectively, the volume increase and the entropy decrease for any small increment of water of crystallization. The term ΔSh, and hence dp/dT, is negative because water molecules that take up crystal lattice sites are effectively immobilized. A negative dp/dT means that the confining pressure increases with decreasing temperature, and it is this feature that makes water of crystallization a particularly unwelcome phenomenon in decaying, and therefore cooling, radioactive waste.