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Title: Recent developments pertinent to processing of ENDF/B-6 type resonance cross section data.

Conference ·
OSTI ID:10618

In view of our increasing dependence on computations rather than construction and operation of more costly experimental facilities, the rigor and accuracy achievable by calculational methods certainly deserve more attention. This is particularly so for the Monte Carlo methods which are generally regarded as the ultimate computational standard for the entire nuclear community around the globe. One obvious question that one may raise is whether the numerical algorithms deployed to process cross sections accurately reflect the rigor of the state-of-the-art nuclear data. The case in point is particularly essential in the resolved and the unresolved resonance regions, which constitute the most demanding task in all processing codes for reactor applications. For the resolved energy region, the point-wise cross sections are highly fluctuating functions of energy and temperature. In light of the availability of a large body of resonance data spanning over the much expanded energy ranges for most of major nuclides, critical examinations and improvement where appropriate, of the existing methods are apparently in order. For the unresolved energy region, improvement of traditional methods based on statistical approaches for treating the self-shielding effects is also desirable. From the perspective of the Monte Carlo approach, an alternative means for generating the probability tables without the inevitable difficulties associated with statistical uncertainties and/or those with concerns of uniqueness is needed. The accuracy considerations provide the motivation for the recent efforts at ANL to upgrade the existing VIMB processing code developed in early 70's in order to deal processing codes with these issues. Various tasks of upgrading are still at various stages of development. The purpose of this paper is to present an up-to-date account of the work in progress.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Lab., IL (US)
Sponsoring Organization:
US Department of Energy (US)
DOE Contract Number:
W-31109-ENG-38
OSTI ID:
10618
Report Number(s):
ANL/RA/CP-95513; TRN: US0103632
Resource Relation:
Conference: International Conference on the Physics of Nuclear Science and Technology, Long Island, NY (US), 10/05/1998--10/08/1998; Other Information: PBD: 7 Jul 1998
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English