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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.
Wang Kai, Xiaowei Jiao, Chuangxiong Cai, Zhaozhong He, Kun Chen (CAS)
Proceedings | 2018 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2018) | Charlotte, NC, April 8-11, 2018 | Pages 1199-1204
Direct auxiliary cooling system (DRACS) is one candidate for FHR (Fluoride-salt-cooled High temperature reactor) decay heat removal system. DRACS relies on buoyancy as the driving force to form natural circulation to remove the decay heat. As a passive engineered safety feature, some key parameters and models must be validated. In order to study the characteristics of the natural circulation of the molten salts, a high-temperature molten salt natural circulation experiment loop has been designed and constructed by the TMSR (Thorium Molten Salt Reactor) center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) with nitrate selected to be coolant. A series of experiments have been scheduled to be conducted on the loop, this loop could be used as a validation facility for DRACS. In this paper, steady-state natural circulation experiment results are shown. The results show that NNCL (nitrate natural circulation loop) was running steady and reliable, and the heat can be removed continuously. The RELAP5-MS code is employed to simulate NNCL behavior, and the simulation results coincide with experiment results. The modified RELAP5-MS can be used for the molten salt natural circulation system analysis. Based on these experiments and simulation results, the DRACS system can be used in the molten salt reactor as the decay heat removal system.
