Nuclear Data Measurements for 21st Century Reactor Physics Applications

The United States Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) has embarked on a long-term program to significantly advance the science and technology of nuclear energy. This is in response to the overall national plan for accelerated development of domestic energy resources on several fronts, punctuated by recent dramatic events that have emphasized the need for the US to reduce its dependence on foreign petroleum supplies. Key aspects of the DOE-NE agenda are embodied in the Generation-IV (Gen-IV) advanced nuclear energy systems development program and in the Advanced Fuel Cycle (AFC) program. The planned efforts involve near-term and intermediate-term improvements in fuel utilization and recycling in current nuclear power reactor systems as well as the longer-term development of new nuclear energy systems that offer much improved fuel utilization and proliferation resistance, along with continued advances in operational safety. The success of the overall NE effort will depend not only on sophisticated system development and engineering, but also on the advances in the supporting sciences and technologies. Of these, one of the most important is the improvement of the relevant fundamental nuclear science data bases, especially the evaluated neutron interaction cross section files that serve as the foundation ofmore » all reactor system designs, operating strategies, and fuel cycle engineering activities. The new concepts for reactors and fuel cycles involve the use of transuranic nuclides that were previously of little interest, and where experimentally measured information is lacking. The current state of the cross section database for some of these nuclides is such that design computations for advanced fast-spectrum reactor systems and fuel cycles that incorporate such materials in significant quantities are meaningful only for approximate conceptual applications. No actual system could reliably be designed according to currently accepted standards, nor could such a system be safely and efficiently operated, with the limited nuclear data and related information now available.« less