Nuclear data is a general term for the physical quantities which
describe the probabilities of nuclear reactions, the decay schemes
of radioactive isotopes, the energies of emitted radiation, and
so on. The "evaluation" of nuclear data involves the integration
of experimental results with the values calculated using nuclear
theory and statistics. A large amount of evaluated nuclear data
has been compiled to develop a nuclear data library for general
purpose use; it is called the Japanese Evaluated Nuclear Data
Library (JENDL).
At present there are two main focuses of activity in the development
of JENDL. The first is an evaluated nuclear data library for nuclear
reactions induced by neutrons, charged particles, and photons,
with energies up to several GeV, which will be useful to researchers
in the fields of accelerator engineering, astrophysics, space
engineering, and medical science, as shown in Fig. 6-1. The second
main activity is the JENDL High Energy File, which is mainly intended
for the calculation of particle transport and activations induced
by neutrons, protons and photons. Fig. 6-2 shows one example of
neutron reaction cross-sections of bismuth, which are expected
to be used for measurements of the high-energy neutrons. In the
figure, the line indicates the evaluated values and the symbols
indicate the experimental results. We have made efforts to respond
to the needs of many fields through the compilation of these evaluated
nuclear data. |
