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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,

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Prompt fission neutrons following the thermal and 0.5 MeV neutron-induced fission reaction of 239 Pu are calculated using a Monte Carlo approach to the evaporation of the excited fission fragments. Exclusive data such as the multiplicity distribution P (ν), the average multiplicity as a function of fragment mass ν(A), and many others are inferred in addition to the most used average prompt fission neutron spectrum χ (E in , E out), as well as average neutron multiplicity ν. Experimental information on these more exclusive data help constrain the Monte Carlo model parameters. The calculated average total neutron multiplicity is ν c = 2.871 in very close agreement with the evaluated value ν e = 2.8725 present in the ENDF/B-VII.0 library. The neutron multiplicity distribution P (ν) is in very good agreement with the evaluation by Holden and Zucker. The calculated average spectrum differs in shape from the ENDF/B-VII.0 spectrum, evaluated with the Madland-Nix model. In particular, we predict more neutrons in the low-energy tail of the spectrum (below about 300 keV) than the Madland-Nix calculations, casting some doubts on how much scission neutrons contribute to the shape of the low-energy tail of the spectrum. The spectrum high-energy tail is very sensitive to the total kinetic energy distribution of the fragments as well as to the total excitation energy sharing at scission. Present experimental uncertainties on measured spectra above 6 MeV are too large to distinguish between various theoretical hypotheses. Finally, comparisons of the Monte Carlo results with experimental data on ν(A) indicate that more neutrons are emitted from the light fragments than the heavy ones, in agreement with previous works.