Generalized Nuclear Database Structure (GNDS) Formatted Files for the ENDF/B-VIII.0 Evaluated Nuclear Data Library

In addition to being released in the legacy ENDF-6 format, the ENDF-VIII library is also available for download as XML files conforming to version 2.0 of the new Generalized Nuclear Database Structure (GNDS/XML-v2.0), which is intended to serve as a replacement to the ENDF-6 format in the future. This marks the second official release of a library in GNDS (ENDF-VIII.0 was previously released in GNDS-v1.9), and is meant to give users a chance to start migrating tools that currently use ENDF-6 over to using the new standard. Since the two formats contain the same underlying data, nuclear data users will be able to test GNDS capabilities by comparing results with similar tools that use data from ENDF-6. Cross-validating results between the two libraries is expected to help discover errors and build confidence that GNDS is performing as expected.

The GNDS-2.0 specifications document is finalized and will be published soon. The previous document describing GNDS-1.9 is available from https://www.oecd-nea.org/jcms/pl_39689/specifications-for-the-generalised-nuclear-database-structure-gnds?details=true. Ongoing development of the GNDS standard is overseen by the NEA/OECD expert group on GNDS or EG-GNDS, https://www.oecd-nea.org/jcms/pl_23131/wpec-expert-group-on-the-recommended-definition-of-a-general-nuclear-database-structure-eggnds.

In addition to evaluated nuclear data, GNDS also provides a way to store and exchange processed data. To demonstrate this capability, examples of GNDS files with processed data are provided below. These files contain neutron-induced reaction data that have been heated to 293 K and processed for use in both Monte Carlo and deterministic transport simulations.

While data in the ENDF-6 and GNDS versions of ENDF-VIII are meant to be cross-compatible, we expect that future evaluations will begin to take advantage of the greater flexibility of GNDS and store new types of data that have no ENDF-6 equivalent. Users are thus strongly encouraged to start testing out GNDS to be ready for future ENDF libraries that may no longer fit in the legacy format.

Full Library GNDS-1.9 .tar.gz

1.4G file: ENDF-VIII.gnds-1.9.tar.gz

Download checksums:

MD5:	c48ea33d1762b9dad9e43a5f818b6a0f
SHA1:	565a822383ee267009e1a9f5c939c2de4d076255
cksum:	978269965

Full Library GNDS-2.0 .tar.gz

0.8G file: ENDF-VIII.gnds-2.0.tar.gz

Download checksums:

MD5:	940e43d38b29d247bfa22df5c4fb8f66
SHA1:	72153519eef7b6e4140abb62cb4bbe62ed26ec3e
cksum:	411728031

Sample GNDS Files

System	GNDS 1.9 Files	GNDS 2.0 Files
n+¹H	GNDS File GNDS Covariance	GNDS File GNDS Covariance
n+²³⁵U	GNDS File GNDS Covariance (It's big: 1.5G)	GNDS File GNDS Covariance (It's big: 1.6G)
TSL n+light water ice (I_h)	GNDS File for H GNDS File for O	GNDS File for H GNDS File for O
Decay data for ²⁵²Cf	GNDS Decay Data File GNDS SFPY File	GNDS Decay Data File GNDS SFPY File
FPY data for n+²³⁵U	GNDS NFPY File	GNDS NFPY File
Atomic data for Al	GNDS Atomic Relaxation File GNDS Photoatomic File GNDS Electron Scattering File	GNDS Atomic Relaxation File GNDS Photoatomic File GNDS Electron Scattering File

Having trouble viewing the XML files?

Fortunately, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Chrome have excellent built-in facilities for viewing XML files. They should be enabled by default.

However, for Safari users, do the following:

Safari → Preferences → Advanced → Show Develop menu in menu bar
Develop → Show Web Inspector

Alternatively, save the XML files to disk and view with any number of XML editors including TextWrangler, Oxygen, Nedit and the built in viewers in the Eclipse, XCode or Komodo Integrated Development Environments.

Processed Sample GNDS Files

30MB file: sampleProcessed.tar.gz

Contains sample processed GNDS files for 12C, 90Zr and 236U, including covariance data.

Download checksums:

MD5:	a0812cb7ff16d25f4b82a828cd754c6b
SHA1:	8db1035c4536f31917355c5567b5a77d7f68490b
cksum:	51785884