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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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.
Chunsen Shi, Jun Li, Jianxiang Zheng, Jian Zhang, Liuxuan Cao, Huifang Miao
Nuclear Technology | Volume 210 | Number 5 | May 2024 | Pages 919-932
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2023.2264515
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the event of a postulated severe accident, fission products may leak into the reactor building through the containment wall, exerting a radiological impact on the emergency response team as they are tasked with performing mitigative missions. It is thus important to estimate the potential radiological consequences of the mission before taking action so that an optimized plan can be devised to avoid putting the team in harm’s way unintentionally. Some of the most well-known accident simulation codes were attempted to do the estimation, but were found to be too time consuming to get the results, making them not suitable for emergency use. The problem evidently arises from the fact that there are too many (about 200) compartments in a typical reactor building.
In this study, the software REMADA is developed to simulate fission product dispersion in a reactor building (with about 200 compartments) within a reasonable timeframe, and to estimate the radiation doses to those who are carrying out mitigative missions in the reactor building. The results show that the software is not only fast, but also informative, to provide support for well-informed emergency decision making.