Speaker
Description
Reliable fission yield data are essential input for reactor depletion simulations, decay heat predictions, and fuel cycle assessments. The high accuracy of these data is particularly important for decommissioning-related analyzes involving the characterization and subsequent handling procedures of irradiated materials. The statistical description of fission fragment de-excitation is based heavily on nuclear level densities and gamma strength functions, making these quantities key contributors to nuclear data-driven uncertainties in fission yield evaluations.
This contribution examines the accuracy and applicability of simulated results from reactor models operating with both thermal and fast neutron spectra. Emphasis must then be placed on the sensitivity of fission yield predictions to commonly used parameterizations of nuclear level densities and gamma strength functions within statistical reaction frameworks. The influence of nuclear structure inputs on fission fragment de-excitation pathways, and consequently on predicted isotopic inventories and activation levels, thus needs to be evaluated.
The aim is to clarify the connection between nuclear structure uncertainties and applied reactor observables, to compare uncertainty propagation in thermal and fast systems, and to motivate further cross-disciplinary efforts in nuclear data uncertainty quantification.