ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
Standards Program
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Jul 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2025
Nuclear Technology
August 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
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.
Deanna Jing Zhang, Dawnmathews Kalathiveettil (NRC)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 1114-1121
Modern digital instrumentation and controls (I&C) systems incorporate many design features that provide safety and reliability benefits to plant operations. However, design decisions relating to I&C system architecture and implementation of these design features may present challenges to demonstrating safety and compliance to regulatory requirements. There can be significant safety and regulatory impacts from design decisions related the I&C platform used, interfaces among redundant safety divisions and between safety and non-safety systems, deterministic behavior, and diversity strategies. These design decisions may influence the I&C system architecture, result in different hazards and hazard controls (e.g., measures for prevention or mitigation), and affect design complexity, all of which may necessitate corresponding levels of evidence (i.e., level of detail, analysis, testing, operating experience, etc.) to demonstrate that the I&C design provides reasonable assurance of safety and compliance with applicable regulatory requirements in an efficient and effective manner. This paper discusses some of the key design decisions for the APR1400 I&C system and architecture and their impact on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff’s design certification application licensing review. For example, this paper discusses benefits and challenges associated with the I&C platform used for the safety-related I&C system. This paper also explores the challenges associated with non-safety to safety communications and the design constraints chosen that addressed hazards of concern associated with this communication and compliance with the independence design principle and regulatory requirement. In addition, this paper provides examples of information necessary to support the safety and regulatory compliance demonstration. Lastly, this paper provides additional insight on lessons learned during the regulatory process for the APR1400 I&C system design certification application review.