FENDL: A library for fusion research and applications

The Fusion Evaluated Nuclear Data Library (FENDL) is a comprehensive and validated collection of nuclear cross section data coordinated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Nuclear Data Section (NDS). FENDL assembles the best nuclear data for fusion applications selected from available nuclear data libraries and has been under development for decades. FENDL contains sub-libraries for incident neutron, proton, and deuteron cross sections including general purpose and activation files used for particle transport and nuclide inventory calculations.

In this work, we describe the history, selection of evaluations for the various sub-libraries (neutron, proton, deuteron) with the focus on transport and reactor dosimetry applications, the processing of the nuclear data for application codes (e.g. MCNP), and the development of the TENDL-2017 library which is the currently recommended activation library for FENDL. We briefly describe the IAEA IRDFF library as the recommended library for dosimetry fusion applications. We also present work on validation of the neutron sub-library using a variety of fusion relevant computational and experimental benchmarks using the MCNP transport code and ACE-formatted cross section libraries. A variety of cross section libraries are used for the validation work including FENDL-2.1, FENDL-3.1d, FENDL-3.2, ENDF/B-VIII.0, and JEFF-3.2 with the emphasis on the FENDL libraries.

The results of the validation using computational benchmarks showed generally good agreement among the tested neutron cross section libraries for neutron flux, nuclear heating, and primary displacement damage (dpa). Gas production (H/He) in structural materials showed substantial differences to the reference FENDL-2.1 library. The results of the experimental validation showed that the performance of FENDL-3.2b is at least as good and in most cases better than FENDL-2.1.

Future work will consider improved evaluations developed by the International Nuclear Data Evaluation Network (INDEN) for materials such as O, Cu, W, Li, B, and F. Additionally, work will need to be done to investigate differences in gas production in structural materials. Covariance matrices will need to be developed or updated as availability of consistent and comprehensive uncertainty information will be needed as fusion technology and facility construction matures. Finally, additional validation work for high energy neutrons, protons and deuterons, as well as validation work for the activation library will be needed.