NEA Mandates and Structures


Working Party on International Nuclear Data Evaluation Co-operation (WPEC)

Chair(s): Osamu IWAMOTO, Japan
Secretary:  Michael FLEMING
(michael.fleming@oecd-nea.org)
Member(s):All NEA member countries*
Russia (Suspended*)
*Russian Federation suspended pursuant to a decision of the OECD Council.
Full participant(s): European Commission
Under the NEA Statute
Observer(s)(International Organisation): International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
By agreement
Date of creation:30 October 1999
End of mandate:30 June 2022

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]
  • Approved at the 20th meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee [NEA/SEN/NSC(2009)3]
  • Extended at the 21st Meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee [NEA/SEN/NSC(2010)3]
  • Revised and extended at the NEA Nuclear Science Committee Bureau meeting held in December 2010 [NEA/NSC/DOC(2010)14, Annex I]
  • Revised and extended at the 24th meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee in June 2013 [NEA/SEN/NSC(2013)2, Annex 2]
  • Revised and extended at the 27th meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee in June 2016 [NEA/SEN/NSC(2016)2]
  • Mandate of the Working Party on International Nuclear Data Evaluation Co-operation (WPEC) [NEA/SEN/NSC/WPEC(2019)3]

     

     

Mandate (Document extract):

Extract from document [NEA/SEN/NSC/WPEC(2019)3]

Impact Statement

The Working Party works to improve the quality and completeness of evaluated nuclear data, which represents our best understanding of the basic nuclear physics required to model nuclear systems, for use in science and technology and to promote the efficient use of resources through international collaboration.

Scope

The topics of the Working Party 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, verification and validation.

Objectives

The Working Party will promote the exchange of information on all nuclear data related topics and foster the adoption of best practices. The Working Party will provide a framework for co-operative activities between the participants and the nuclear data programmes that they represent. The Working Party 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 Working Party facilitates will be reflected in major evaluated data files.

In the three-year period (2019-2022), the Working Party will set out to complete the following tasks:

  • 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;
  • monitor and update the “High Priority Request List for Nuclear Data” (HPRL) to stimulate specific nuclear data measurement and evaluation activities.

The Working Party will liaise closely with other Nuclear Science Committee activities to ensure that data needs of nuclear science applications are properly addressed.

Deliverables

The deliverables of the WPEC during the present mandate are the following:

  • 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 Structures and repositories of the version-controlled documentation source code on the NEA GitLab;
  • a report on prompt photon production from fission products;
  • a report on processing of covariance data in the resonance region;
  • a report on scattering angular distribution in the fast range;
  • a report on evaluation of experimental data in the resolved resonance region;
  • a report on fission yield evaluation methodologies and recommended improvements;
  • a report on the development of a modern nuclear database structure beyond the current Evaluated Nuclear Data File (ENDF) format;
  • a report on methods and approaches to provide feedback from nuclear and covariance data adjustments to evaluators and experimentalists;
  • an extended summary report on a joint assessment of six key isotopes, 1H, 16O, 56Fe, 235U, 238U and 239Pu, in the framework of the Collaborative International Evaluated Library Organization (CIELO) Project;
  • a report on improving nuclear data accuracy of 241Am and 237Np capture cross-sections;
  • a report on thermal scattering kernel S(a,b) measurements, evaluations and applications;
  • a report on code infrastructure to support a modern general nuclear database (GND) structure;
  • a report on covariance data in general purpose nuclear data libraries;
  • 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.