We describe the next generation general purpose Evaluated Nuclear Data File, ENDF/B-VII.0, of recommended nuclear data for advanced nuclear science and technology applications. The library, released by the U.S. Cross Section Evaluation Working Group (CSEWG) in December 2006, contains data primarily for reactions with incident neutrons, protons, and photons on almost 400 isotopes. The new evaluations are based on both experimental data and nuclear reaction theory predictions.The principal advances over the previous ENDF/B-VI library are the following: (1) New cross sections for U, Pu, Th, Np and Am actinide isotopes, with improved performance in integral validation criticality and neutron transmission benchmark tests; (2) More precise standard cross sections for neutron reactions on H, 6 Li, 10 B, Au and for 235,238 U fission, developed by a collaboration with the IAEA and the OECD/NEA Working Party on Evaluation Cooperation (WPEC); (3) Improved thermal neutron scattering; (4) An extensive set of neutron cross sections on fission products developed through a WPEC collaboration; (5) A large suite of photonuclear reactions; (6) Extension of many neutron-and proton-induced reactions up to an energy of 150 MeV; (7) Many new light nucleus neutron and proton reactions; (8) Post-fission beta-delayed photon decay spectra; (9) New radioactive decay data; and (10) New methods developed to provide uncertainties and covariances, together with covariance evaluations for some sample cases.The paper provides an overview of this library, consisting of 14 sublibraries in the same, ENDF-6 format, as the earlier ENDF/B-VI library. We describe each of the 14 sublibraries, focusing on neutron reactions. Extensive validation, using radiation transport codes to simulate measured critical assemblies, show major improvements: (a) The long-standing underprediction of low enriched U thermal assemblies is removed; (b) The 238 U, 208 Pb, and 9 Be reflector biases in fast systems are largely removed; (c) ENDF/B-VI.8 good agreement for simulations of highly enriched uranium assemblies is preserved; (d) The underprediction of fast criticality of 233,235 U and 239 Pu assemblies is removed; and (e) The intermediate spectrum critical assemblies are predicted more accurately.We anticipate that the new library will play an important role in nuclear technology applications, including transport simulations supporting national security, nonproliferation, advanced reactor and fuel cycle concepts, criticality safety, medicine, space applications, nuclear astrophysics, and nuclear physics facility design. The ENDF/B-VII.0 library is archived at the National Nuclear Data Center,
A large number of new measurements with the activation technique were performed for (n,2n) and neutron-induced Z = 1,2 reaction cross sections on the stable molybdenum isotopes in the energy range from 13.5 to 21 MeV. First results were obtained for the 92 Mo(n,2n) Mo(n,x) 97 Nb m , and 100 Mo(n,α) 97 Zr reactions, above 16 MeV. A significant number of high-accuracy 14 MeV measurements were performed which are in good agreement with the measurements above 16 MeV for reactions studied in both energy ranges. The rather complete database for the molybdenum isotopes was analyzed with two different sets of consistent model calculations: a local and a global approach. The global approach (a blind calculation with the TALYS code) provides a good overall description of the dominant reaction channels, although the (n,α) reactions for the heavy isotopes are overpredicted. The local approach (an adjusted calculation with the STAPRE-H code) describes the shapes and magnitudes of the excitation functions well from the reaction thresholds up to 21 MeV using a consistent parameter set, which was optimized based on all experimental information for the nuclei at hand and their immediate neighbors. The agreement between experimental and calculated data is, in general, good both at the maxima and at the tails of the excitation functions, and both for total activation cross sections of a particular channel and for cross sections leading to isomers, showing the viability of the level densities, the optical models, and the γ widths. Comparison of the two model calculations with the data indicates the relevance of an appropriate treatment for preequilibrium (PE) α-particle emission for the description of the data above 14 MeV. Comparison between the model calculations shows largely different PE deuteron emission contributions to the total ( Z = 1, A = 1) cross sections with an additional marked difference in energy dependence. This suggests that emission spectra around 20 MeV are required to establish the magnitude of the PE deuteron emission contribution to this process. New γ -ray strength functions were established by verification against average (n,γ ) data and were demonstrated to give good agreement with the measured isomer production cross sections.
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