NEA Mandates and Structures
Working Party on International Nuclear Data Evaluation Co-operation (WPEC)
| Chair(s): |
Arjan PLOMPEN, Belgium
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Secretaries: |
Anastasia GEORGIADOU
(anastasia.georgiadou@oecd-nea.org)
Antonio JIMENEZ-CARRASCOSA
(antonio.jimenez-carrascosa@oecd-nea.org)
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| Member(s): | All NEA member countries* |
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| Russia (Suspended*) |
| *Russian Federation suspended pursuant to a decision of the OECD Council. |
| EU participation: |
The European Union (EU) takes part in the work of the NEA, in accordance with the NEA Statute and the Supplementary Protocol to the Convention on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
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| Observer(s)(International Organisation): |
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
By agreement
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| Date of creation: | 30 October 1999 |
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| End of mandate: | 30 June 2028 |
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Mandate (Document reference):
- Status of the NEA Nuclear Science Committee Projects and their Evolution in 2007 [NEA/SEN/NSC(2006)2]
- Summary Record of the 17th Meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee (NSC) [NEA/SEN/NSC(2006)3]
- Summary Record of the 20th Meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee [NEA/SEN/NSC(2009)3]
- Summary Record of the 21st Meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee [NEA/SEN/NSC(2010)3]
- Progress in NEA Nuclear Science and Data Bank Activities [NEA/NSC/DOC(2010)14, Annex I]
- Summary Record of the 24th Meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee [NEA/SEN/NSC(2013)2, Annex 2]
- Summary Record of the 27th Meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee [NEA/SEN/NSC(2016)2]
- Summary Record of the 30th Meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee [NEA/SEN/NSC(2019)2]
- Summary Record of the 35th Meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee [NEA/NSC/M(2024)3]
- Summary Record of the 37th Meeting of the Working Party on International Nuclear Data Evaluation Co-operation (WPEC) [NEA/NSC/WPEC/M(2025)9]
- Mandate of the Working Party on International Nuclear Data Evaluation Co-operation (WPEC) [NEA/SEN/NSC/WPEC(2025)1]
Mandate (Document extract):
Extract from document NEA/SEN/NSC/WPEC(2025)1
Mandate
The Working Party on International Nuclear Data Evaluation Co-operation (WPEC) aims to improve the quality and completeness of evaluated nuclear data for use in science and technology. Such data represents our best understanding of the basic nuclear physics required to model nuclear systems. The WPEC also promotes the efficient use of resources through international collaboration.
Scope
The WPEC emphasizes topics that span the full range of nuclear data activities, including basic experimental measurements, theoretical developments, modelling/simulation of nuclear physics, formats and data structures, data processing, experimental data assimilation, and verification and validation.
Objectives
The WPEC will promote the exchange of information on all nuclear data related topics and foster the adoption of best practices. The WPEC will provide a framework for co-operative activities between the participants and the nuclear data programmes that they represent. The WPEC will assess the needs for nuclear data improvements and address those needs by initiating joint evaluation, methods development, or measurement efforts. The outcomes that the WPEC facilitates will be reflected in major evaluated data files.
From 2025-2028, the WPEC will strive to complete several specific tasks, including:
- recommend improvements in evaluated nuclear data (including covariance data) for nuclear technology applications in response to indications from stakeholders, new experimental data, theoretical and modelling advances, sensitivity and uncertainty analysis, and integral validation/assimilation activities;
- recommend updates in codes, formats, methods and practices for further improving the nuclear data evaluation process and streamlining their processing and use; and
- monitor and update the “High Priority Request List for Nuclear Data” (HPRL) to stimulate specific nuclear data measurement and evaluation activities.
The WPEC will liaise closely with other Nuclear Science Committee (NSC) activities to ensure that data needs of nuclear science applications are properly addressed.
Deliverables
The WPEC will produce the following during the mandate period:
- a continuously updated version of the HPRL, accessible through the NEA web pages, which reflects the annual reviews of all progress made to satisfy these requests and new entries;
- a continuously updated specifications document for Generalised Nuclear Database Structure and repositories of the version-controlled documentation source code on the NEA GitLab;
- a report on the development of a modern nuclear database structure beyond the current Evaluated Nuclear Data File (ENDF) format;
- a report on the Validation of Nuclear Data Libraries (VaNDaL) Project, including a suite of inter-comparison benchmark inputs and outputs;
- a report on the efficient and effective use of integral experiments for nuclear data validation;
- a report on the use of shielding benchmarks for nuclear data validation and priority needs from the shielding benchmark community;
- a report on new thermal scattering kernel measurements, evaluation, and applications;
- a report on methods to ensure reproducibility in nuclear data evaluation;
- a report containing requirements and specifications summarising initial developments of tools to build a database that mines data out of EXFOR in a way that makes the data more automatically accessible and preserves expert knowledge used in nuclear data evaluation.;
- a report covering various aspects of the evaluation, processing and validation in the unresolved resonance region;
- a report on the development and application of advanced methodologies to produce application specific nuclear data;
- a report on the joint evaluation and subsequent validation of the stable isotopes of Zirconium; and
- a report on developing a curated EXFOR database for an automatically readable, comprehensive, and evaluator-corrected experimental reaction database.
