Speaker
Description
The ANSWERS Software Service produces the MONK\textregistered and MCBEND Monte Carlo codes, and the WIMS deterministic code for nuclear criticality, shielding and reactor physics applications. MONK and MCBEND can utilise the BINGO continuous energy nuclear data library and MONK and WIMS can utilise the WIMS 172 energy group nuclear data library. Production of BINGO libraries currently utilises NJOY2016 for much of the ENDF-6 evaluated data processing with bespoke routines for the S($\alpha$,$\beta$) tabulations and secondary data. Production of WIMS libraries also uses NJOY2016, with post-processing of the GROUPR output to form the specific WIMS library format. Additional nuclear data library requirements (e.g. depletion and heating data) also utilise NJOY2016 as well as CALENDF, the BNL utility codes and in-house ENDF-6 handling codes. Cognisant of the development of the Generalised Nuclear Data Structure (GNDS) format and its benefits over ENDF-6, ANSWERS have examined the function of GNDS format APIs, including GNDStk and GIDI+, and prototyped generation routes for the BINGO and WIMS libraries using these APIs. The prototype libraries, based on GNDS format data have been compared against standard libraries in terms of numerical differences and performance for a number of physic code benchmark cases. In parallel, the NJOY21 development has been investigated, as a candidate for the eventual replacement of NJOY2016 in the ANSWERS libraries generation routes. Similarly, prototype libraries produced via NJOY21 have been compared against standard libraries.