Development of IAEA nuclear reaction databases and services

Abstract

Abstract. From mid-2004 onwards, the major nuclear reaction databases (EXFOR, CINDA and ENDF) and services (Web and CD-ROMs retrieval systems and specialized applications) have been functioning within a modern computing environment as multiplatform software, working under several operating systems with relational databases. Subsequent work at the IAEA has focused on three areas of development: revision and extension of the contents of the databases; extension and improvement of the functionality and integrity of the retrieval systems; development of software for database maintenance and system deployment.

Experimental Nuclear Reaction Data Uncertainties: Basic Concepts and Documentation

“…An approximate covariance matrix can be constructed from C5 data entries by making the simplified assumption that the total systematic uncertainties are fully (100%) correlated. Experimental data in the C4 and C5 formats are more convenient for automated operations such as plotting, evaluation, etc., than data in the EXFOR format (Path 6) [69]. Much of the text information recorded in EXFOR is stripped out in converting data from the basic EXFOR compilation format to C4 or C5, leaving only the essential numbers and descriptions (e.g., experimenters, reaction types, energies, cross sections, and uncertainty information) needed for plotting, evaluations, and other applications.…”

“…Users can also acquire data directly from publications if they choose to do so (Path 4). Within the EXFOR system there exist utility codes that can process data from the EX-FOR format to produce the Computational formats, either C4 formatted files [68,69] or, more recently, files in the newer C5 format [70]. C4 includes values of parameters and their total uncertainties (if available).…”

The art of collecting experimental data internationally: EXFOR, CINDA and the NRDC network

“…Databases are continuously upgraded to new software platforms to facilitate access, retrieval and plotting [6][7][8][9]. An example of EXFOR data is plotted in figure 5 with the NEADB display program Janis.…”

“…The "X4+" or "EXFOR interpreted" format from the IAEA-NDS ( fig. 3) [6] and the Janis EXFOR output format ( fig. 4) [7] give the user explanations of the internal codes and abbreviations used.…”

“…The major general purpose libraries, ENDF/B-VII.0 (USA), JEFF-3.1 (NEA), BROND2.2 (Russia), JENDL-3.3 (Japan), CENDL-2.1 (China) and several specialised libraries, such as FENDL-2.1, are available online from NEADB (database "EVA") [9], NNDC and NDS (database "ENDF"). Evaluated and experimental data can be plotted online, or by using the software packages ZVView (downloaded from NDS or NNDC) [6] or JANIS (downloaded from NEADB) [7].…”