Speaker
Description
Following the release of JEFF-3.3 in late 2017, the JEFF coordination group took a step back to review its goals for a new major release, JEFF-4: for users, in terms of fields of application and performance, and within the project to modernize the methods for the production, testing and benchmarking of its evaluated files. Given the broad range of applications of a nuclear data library and the general expectation of professional users of best estimates with uncertainty through computer simulations, ambitious goals were set. To cover all interests, the library must be truly general purpose, provide best physics data with uncertainties and covariances, be as complete as possible and be broadly tested and validated. To enable this, an important focus is on enhanced quality assurance and improved working methods. In support of this objective, the OECD-NEA Databank continues to improve a new platform to sustain and enhance the JEFF-4 developments: JEFF-lab, a collaboration environment based on GitLab.
A stakeholder workshop, held in 2018, indicated where to improve performance for end-user applications beyond those of the JEFF working group members. In addition, in 2021, the Coordination Group surveyed the needs of the organizations participating in JEFF, as well as of the expected contributions to the new library. A plan for testing and validation was established. There is an important emphasis on performance beyond the current NEA-Mosteller test case suite, in the present-day and prospective reactor and fuel cycle applications.
For JEFF-4, we are aiming, amongst others, for new major actinide evaluations, a much-needed update of minor actinide evaluations, new thermal scattering libraries, new oxygen and iron files, a systematic replacement of legacy files, new thermal fission yields evaluations for U-235 and Pu-239, a significant update of the decay data library. To enhance completeness and meet the goal of best physics estimates with uncertainties for a large number of nuclides, JEFF collaborates closely with the TENDL project. A large number of files in JEFF will be from TENDL. A number of the contributed dedicated evaluations will result from using the T6 system or TALYS.
The presentation will provide an overview of the JEFF-4 development, about 2.5 years before its foreseen date of release at the end of 2024.