Finding Evaluated Nuclear Data Files

The process of evaluating nuclear reaction data involves combining experimental measurements with theoretical models to come up with a best judgement of the real values of the underlying nuclear reaction data. Some evaluation efforts are devoted to determining a single reaction cross section (e.g., for dosimetry or activation), and others attempt to provide a complete representation of all the cross sections, product yields, and product distributions in energy and angle. The latter are needed for full-scale calculations of the performance of nuclear systems; therefore, they must be in a standard computer-readable format. At the current time, almost all full-scale evaluations use the ENDF (Evaluated Nuclear Data File) format originally developed in the US and now used all over the world (the ENDL format used at Livermore is one exception). Individual evaluations are normally combined into libraries intended to provide full coverage for nuclear calculations by national or multi-national organizations. These libraries are given a characteristic name with a version identifier for easy reference. Some of the prominent nuclear data libraries available now include ENDF/B-VII -- This is the standard evaluated nuclear reaction library for the US. It is controlled by the Cross Section Evaluation Working Group (CSEWG) of the US Department of Energy and maintained at the National Nuclear Data Center (NNDC) at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. ENDF/B libraries are occasionally updated with "Releases," the latest for ENDF/B-VII being Release 1 (sometimes written as ENDF/B-VII.1). JEFF-3.0 -- This is one version of the standard library for the European Community, and it is administered by the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Data Bank in Paris. JEF has been oriented towards power reactor applications in the past, but it is now being merged with the European Fusion File (EFF) effort to create a new JEFF system that will provide comprehensive data for both fission and fusion systems. JENDL-4 -- This is the standard library for fission applications in Japan. It is controlled by the Japanese Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAEA). The JENDL system includes a separate fusion file, but much of the fusion-oriented data are being merged into the base JENDL library. BROND-2 -- This is an older standard Russian library of evaluated nuclear reaction data, coordinated by the Nuclear Data Center at the Institute of Physics and Power Engineering, Obninsk, Russia. CENDL-2 -- This is the standard Chinese library of evaluated nuclear reaction data, and it is managed by the Chinese Nuclear Data Center at the Institute of Atomic Energy in Beijing, P. R. China. In addition to these main libraries, each of the evaluated data libraries contains special purpose libraries. Examples of this type of library include the activation file, e.g., ADL-3T from Russia, the ENDF/B-VII.1 decay data from the US, and the ENDF/B charged-particle libraries. The T-2 Nuclear Information Service provides easy access to these various libraries of evaluated nuclear data through index lists of the materials available for a particular library. The user can browse through the evaluation using interpreted pages in HTML format. Using the index route, you can also get access to the raw ENDF evaluation for viewing or downloading and convenient plots of the data in PDF format.

Using the Index Lists of Evalutions

Getting Raw ENDF Data

Browsing Interpreted ENDF Data