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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 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.
Hiroshi Akie, Tadasumi Muromura, Hideki Takano, Shojiro Matsuura
Nuclear Technology | Volume 107 | Number 2 | August 1994 | Pages 182-192
Technical Paper | Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT107-182
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
For the burning of plutonium derived from nuclear warheads, once-through type oxide fuels have been studied by considering their proliferation resistance and environmental safety as well as their technological backgrounds of fuel fabrication and reactors. From phase relations of ceramic materials and their chemical properties, it seems that a two-phase mixture of a fluorite-type phase and alumina has favorable characteristics as a once-through-type fuel of plutonium burning. It also seems that the fluorite-type phases such as thoria and fully stabilized zirconia are acceptable as host phases of plutonium because of high solid solubility of the actinide elements and fission products, irradiation stability, and chemical stability. The spent fuels finally obtained will become mineral-like waste forms, which could be buried under deep geological formations without further processing. From reactor burnup calculations with the use of the fuels, light water reactors (LWRs) with the larger volume ratio of moderator to fuel than 1.4, such as conventional LWRs, are considered to be suitable for the once-through plutonium burning. Furthermore, such LWRs can transmute nearly 99% of 239Pu and 85% of initial loaded weapons-grade plutonium. The quality of plutonium becomes completely poor in the spent fuels.