Improvements on the damage calculations using evaluated nuclear data and NJOY

Abstract

NJOY is the only open-source nuclear data processing code allowing calculating neutron-induced displacement damage cross sections from evaluated nuclear data. However, some issues exist in the NJOY calculation of damage cross sections, including the inconsistency for neutron capture reaction with photon data given in MF6 vs. MF12-MF15, questionable or even incorrect recoil nuclear data in MF6, discrepant damage cross sections using different approaches, and the potential underestimation above 20 MeV due to the storage of nuclear data in MT5. These issues should be addressed by the improvements on both evaluated nuclear data and the NJOY code.