PROCEEDINGS OF A SYMPO - IAEA Nuclear Data Services

FOREWORD
The IAEA Sym posium on "A pplication s o f N uclear Data in Science and
T ech n ology" was convened by the International A tom ic E nergy A gency on
12-16 M arch 1973 in P a ris at the invitation o f the F ren ch G overnm ent.
The m eeting was held on the recom m endation of the International N uclear
Data C om m ittee (INDC) and the International W orking Group on N uclear
Structure and R eaction Data (IWGNSRD). The main purpose o f the Symposium
was to illum inate the needs fo r nuclear data in the tech n ologica l and s cie n ­
tific com m unity. O ver 200 delegates attended, represen tin g 30 countries
and five international organ izations. A total o f 74 papers was presented,
including the Keynote A ddress and the Sym posium Sum m ary.
F o r many yea rs the m echanism s fo r satisfying the nuclear data needs
related to neutron-induced reaction s have been fa irly w ell organized by those
con cern ed with n eu tron -rea ctor tech n ology, which is a m ajor field o f ap p lication
fo r this kind o f data. H ow ever, fo r sev era l y ea rs it has becom e increa
sin g ly evident that there is a strong need fo r better, u p -to-d ate c o m ­
pilations o f n uclear data fo r a large num ber o f other application s. The IAEA
was th erefore requested to convene a sym posium in o rd e r to review the
status o f and needs fo r new nuclear data evaluation activ ities. During the
p rep aration , it becam e evident that the sym posium should em phasize data
needs in the variou s applications rather than existing data com pilation
activ ities.
The p rogra m com m ittee attempted to achieve a balance betw een rea ctor
and n o n -re a cto r applications as w ell as a balance between the needs fo r
variou s applications and the needs for com pilation w ork. As a resu lt, four
o f the sixteen regular session s w ere devoted to applications related to
nuclear energy, seven to other applications and five to top ics related to
data com p ilation s. In con trast to the International C onferences on N uclear
Data fo r R ea ctors (P a ris , 17 - 21 O ctober 1966, and H elsinki, 15-19 June
1970), this Sym posium was not meant to be a forum fo r the presentation o f
experim en tal data.
The Sym posium dem onstrated that the com pilation o f structure and
d ecay data would benefit from con sid erably in creased support. These data
are b a sic to m ost other d ata-application -orien ted com pilations. The long
delay in bringing com pilations o f this type up to date cau ses unacceptable
h old-u ps in the p rocess o f bringing such data from p rod u cers to u sers.
Under the heading 'Sym posium Sum m ary' , D r. W .B. L ew is, at the end o f
the m eeting, d iscu ssed the m ost im portant con clu sion s to be drawn from
the sym posium with regard to data needs and the status of com pilations.
A further sum m ary o f the m eeting, by L. H järne, appears in A tom ic Energy
R eview , 1973, V o l.11, N o.2, 395.
The P roceed in g s are divided into two volu m es, the first o f which con ­
tains, besid es the Keynote A d d ress, th irty-tw o papers in the field s o f
Future T echn ology R equirem ents, R eactor T echnology, Safeguards, L ife
S cien ces, R adioisotopes in C hem istry, F issio n -P ro d u ct N uclear Data and