About the NNDC

Mission

The National Nuclear Data Center (NNDC) collects, evaluates, and disseminates nuclear physics data for basic nuclear research and applied nuclear technologies. The NNDC is a worldwide resource for nuclear data. The information available to the users of NNDC services is the product of the combined efforts of the NNDC and cooperating data centers and other interested groups, both in the United States and worldwide.

The NNDC specializes in the following areas:

• Nuclear structure and low-energy nuclear reactions
• Nuclear databases and information technology
• Nuclear data compilation and evaluation

There are currently 14 permanent staff members at the NNDC, including 10 with PhDs. The group includes scientific, professional, and support staff. Additionally, 6 people with a PhD degree work part-time under contract. The NNDC also hosts about 4 short-term visiting scientists and approximately 25 undergraduate interns per year.

Address

National Nuclear Data Center
Building 817
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Upton, NY 11973-5000
BNL Map
Google View

Phone: (631) 344-2902
Fax: (631) 344-2806
E-mail: nndc@bnl.gov
Internet:https://www.nndc.bnl.gov

Contacts

For technical questions, please use the following list:

Staff

Web Statistics

The NNDC has provided remote electronic access to its databases and other information since 1986.
Access via the Web started in 1994.

The figure below shows the time evolution of the number of electronic retrievals - web, telnet and FTP - from 1996 to present.

History

The NNDC traces its roots back to as early as the foundation of Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in 1947. In 1952, with the Brookhaven Neutron Cross Section Compilation Group in the Physics Department at BNL was formed. This group published the first edition of the well-known reference book BNL-325 (Neutron Cross Sections) in 1955.

In 1961, the Sigma Center was moved to the Reactor Physics Division of the Nuclear Engineering (NE) Department and continued this work. The Brookhaven Neutron Cross Section Compilation Group and the Sigma Center were merged in 1967 and the new Center was designated as the National Neutron Cross Section Center (NNCSC) by the Atomic Energy Commission.

In 1977, the Center was given the additional responsibility for nuclear structure and decay data by the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA), the predecessor of the Department of Energy, and its name was then changed to the National Nuclear Data Center

The following people have served as head of the NNDC:

• Sol Pearlstein (1977-1990)
• Charlie Dunford (1991-2001)
• Pavel Oblozinsky (2002-2009)
• Michal Herman (2009-2016)
• Alejandro Sonzogni (2016-2021)
• David Brown (2021-Present)

An updated version the NNDC's history, prepared on its 50th anniversary, can be found here.