Systematic Approach to Nuclear Data Uncertainty Quantification for Nuclear Security Applications

摘要

The need to improve nuclear data for national security and a broad range of other applications is gaining recognition as underscored by the recent formation of a U S. Nuclear Data Working Group to develop consensus data needs and advance activities leading to new measurements for cross-cutting application areas. This overview presents current research to develop covanance data, uncertainty analysis methods, and tools applicable to a broad class of application space and measurement techniques. Ultimately, these tools can be applied to identify major data components dominating uncertainty in different applications to prioritize data measurement programs. Although the nuclear data important to these techniques vary depending on the end use, covariance data applied in this project cover the major nuclear data categories common to many application areas. This approach ensures the ability to address the importance of many data uncertainties simultaneously and allows covariances to drive data recommendations using objective, quantitative measures.