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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 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!
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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.
Ronald E. Mizia, Tedd E. Lister, Patrick J. Pinhero, Tammy L. Trowbridge, William L. Hurt, Charles V. Robino, John J. Stephens, Jr., John N. DuPont
Nuclear Technology | Volume 155 | Number 2 | August 2006 | Pages 133-148
Technical Paper | Materials | doi.org/10.13182/NT06-A3752
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The U.S. Department of Energy requires nuclear criticality control measures for storage of its highly enriched spent nuclear fuel. A new alloy based on the Ni-Cr-Mo alloy system with a gadolinium addition has been developed. Gadolinium has been chosen as the neutron absorption alloying element because of its high thermal neutron absorption cross section. The metallurgical development, mechanical and physical properties, thermal neutron absorption properties, and accelerated corrosion-testing performance of this Ni-Cr-Mo-Gd alloy is described. A brief comparison is also included of the corrosion performance of this alloy as compared to borated stainless steel, which is commonly used as a neutron-absorbing, structural alloy.