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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.
Alexander G. Parlos, Jayakumar Muthusami, Amir F. Atiya
Nuclear Technology | Volume 105 | Number 2 | February 1994 | Pages 145-161
Technical Paper | Nuclear Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT94-A34919
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The objective of this paper is to present the development and numerical testing of a robust fault detection and identification (FDI) system using artificial neural networks (ANNs), for incipient (slowly developing) faults occurring in process systems. The challenge in using ANNs in FDI systems arises because of one’s desire to detect faults of varying severity, faults from noisy sensors, and multiple simultaneous faults. To address these issues, it becomes essential to have a learning algorithm that ensures quick convergence to a high level of accuracy. A recently developed accelerated learning algorithm, namely a form of an adaptive back propagation (ABP) algorithm, is used for this purpose. The ABP algorithm is used for the development of an FDI system for a process composed of a direct current motor, a centrifugal pump, and the associated piping system. Simulation studies indicate that the FDI system has significantly high sensitivity to incipient fault severity, while exhibiting insensitivity to sensor noise. For multiple simultaneous faults, the FDI system detects the fault with the predominant signature. The major limitation of the developed FDI system is encountered when it is subjected to simultaneous faults with similar signatures. During such faults, the inherent limitation of pattern-recognition-based FDI methods becomes apparent. Thus, alternate, more sophisticated FDI methods become necessary to address such problems. Even though the effectiveness of pattern-recognition-based FDI methods using ANNs has been demonstrated, further testing using real-world data is necessary.