Program - Brookhaven National Laboratory

PR 124
Nuclear Data Evaluation and the NNDC
Norman E. Holden, National Nuclear Data Center, Brookhaven National Laboratory.
In the late nineteenth century, natural philosophers looked for future discoveries in the sixth place of
decimals, since most important fundamental laws had already been discovered. We start our review of
nuclear data from the discoveries of radioactivity, of the neutron, of nuclear fission, and the wartime
Manhattan District Project (development of the ”atomic bomb”) into the post-war (large government
funding and big science) era. The detailed examination begins with the creation of the Brookhaven
National Laboratory (BNL) to house an ”East Coast” nuclear reactor for peaceful purposes by the nine
large academic institutions in the northeast USA. We examine the effort to determine ”best values” for
neutron cross sections (and later non-neutron nuclear data) at the precursors of the National Nuclear
Data Center (NNDC) at BNL and a major effort in development of computerized systems for neutron
data storage and retrieval. We will include the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission’s (USAEC) creation of
the Cross Section Evaluation Working Group (CSEWG) to develop (for reactor applications) a consistent
evaluated digitized neutron data system, the Evaluated Nuclear Data File (ENDF). We review the work
of the ”BNL Study Group”, which helped to centralize the nuclear structure data evaluation within the
USA and eventually world-wide. We discuss the development of the Evaluated Nuclear Structure Data
File (ENSDF) and the Recent References File.
PR 125
Neutron Resonance Densitometry for Particle-like Debris of Melted Fuel
H. Harada, F. Kitatani, M. Koizumi, J. Takamine, M. Kureta, H. Tsuchiya, H. Iimura, M. Seya, Japan
Atomic Energy Agency. B. Becker, S. Kopecky, Peter Schillebeeckx, EC-JRC-IRMM.
Feasibility study of neutron resonance densitometry (NRD) has been started to quantify of nuclear materials
in particle-like debris of melted fuel formed in severe accidents of nuclear reactor such as Fukushima Daiich
nuclear power plants. The NRD here is a combined method of NRTA (neutron resonance transmission
analysis) and NRCA (neutron resonance capture analysis) using a pulsed neutron generator and TOF (time
of flight) measurement. The presentation includes the proposed compact NRD system, the spectrometer
design for NRCA using LaBr3 detectors by Monte Carlo simulations, and analytical studies on achievable
accuracies. The experimental results using particle-like Cu samples measured at the GELINA facility in
IRMM are also shown in comparison with analytical studies. Required nuclear data for the NRD will be
also discussed. This work was done under the agreement between JAEA and EURATOM in the field of
nuclear materials safeguards research and development. This research was supported by JSGO/MEXT.
PR 126
Neutron Spectrum Simulation at Flight Altitude in the South Atlantic Magnetic Anomaly
M. T. Pazianotto, Technological Institute of Aeronautics. C. A. Federico, Institute for Advanced Studies.
O. L. Goncalez, Institute for Advanced Studies. B. V. Carlson, Technological Institute of Aeronautics.
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