DOI: 10.15669/pnst.6.225

Progress in Nuclear Science and Technology
Volume 6 (2019) pp. 225-229

ARTICLEACE library of JENDL-4.0/HE
Norihiro Matsudaa*, Satoshi Kuniedaa, Tsutomu Okamotoa,b, Kenichi Tadaa and Chikara Konnoa
aJapan Atomic Energy Agency, 2-4 Shirakata, Tokai-mura, Naka-gun, Ibaraki-ken, 319-1195, Japan; bNippon Advanced Information

Service, 416 Muramatsu, Tokai-mura, Naka-gun, Ibaraki-ken, 319-1112, Japan (Current affiliation)

The Intra-Nuclear Cascade model employed into general-purpose Monte-Carlo simulation codes is not always
applicable in the energy region from 20 MeV to several hundreds of MeV. In order to improve accuracy of theMonte-Carlo simulations including this energy region, the fourth version of Japanese Evaluated Nuclear Data
Library High Energy File (JENDL-4.0/HE) as a new special purpose file, was released in 2015. It includes
evaluated cross-sections for incident neutrons and protons up to 200 MeV for 130 and 133 nuclei, respectively.
A Compact version of ENDF (ACE) library of all the neutron- and proton-induced reaction data for the
MCNP, MCNPX and PHITS codes has been produced with the nuclear data processing code NJOY2016.9,
which was modified to keep laboratory angle-energy distribution form (LAW=67) in the ACE library of
proton because the original NJOY converts laboratory angle-energy distribution form (LAW=67) tocontinuum energy-angle distribution form (LAW=61) automatically and PHITS can only treat angle-energy
distribution form (LAW=67) for proton. Validations for the ACE library were performed through benchmark
calculations for high-energy shielding experiments with PHITS.
Keywords: JENDL-4.0/HE; NJOY2016; ACE library; Monte Carlo; PHITS; validation
1. Introduction1
The Intra-Nuclear Cascade (INC) model employed
into general-purpose Monte-Carlo simulation codes (e.g.
INCL4.6 [1] into PHITS [2]) is not always applicable in
the energy region from typical upper limit of evaluatednuclear data (20 MeV) to several hundreds of MeV.
Nuclear reactions in this energy region are muchsensitive to nuclear structure, especially for light-nuclei
such as Lithium and Beryllium. Theoretical estimationsof the cross-sections are also difficult for theselight-nuclei because of applicable limit of nuclear
modeling code. Therefore, semi-classical approximation
by INC model is not adequate below several hundreds of
MeV. In order to improve accuracy of the Monte-Carlosimulations including this energy region, a new special
purpose file of Japanese Evaluated Nuclear Data Library,
JENDL-4.0 High-Energy File (JENDL-4.0/HE) [3], wasreleased in 2015. It includes evaluated cross-sections forincident neutrons and protons up to 200 MeV for 130
and 133 nuclei, respectively. Substantial features of the
JENDL-4.0/HE are, (1) systematic evaluation for
medium-mass nuclei using the CCONE code [4] withrecent progress in the optical model [5] and clustering
pre-equilibrium model [6], (2) challenges to theevaluations of light-nuclei such for the p+6,7Li and
p+9Be reactions through the interpolation/extrapolationof experimental data, and (3) inheritance of the existing*Corresponding author. Email: matsuda.norihiro@jaea.go.jp© 2019 Atomic Energy Society of Japan. All rights reserved.

evaluated nuclear data of JENDL-4.0 [7] below 20 MeV
and JENDL/HE-2007 [8] which is a previous version of
JENDL High-Energy File. The details of the evaluation
methods and approaches about the JENDL-4.0/HE aresummarized in the report [3].
We produced an ACE library of JENDL-4.0/HE by anuclear data processing code NJOY [9]. The ACE
library which is used in general-purpose Monte-Carlosimulation codes, such as MCNP [10], MCNPX [11] andPHITS, is a compact version of the Evaluated Nuclear
Data File (ENDF) [12] library. The ENDF is a format tostore and retrieve the evaluated nuclear data. For thispurpose, several modifications were applied to the latest
version of NJOY, NJOY2016.9. Validations of this ACE
library were carried out by the analysis of high-energy
shielding experiments with PHITS, and the results weresummarized.
2. Processing of evaluated nuclear data with NJOYThe JENDL-4.0/HE has ENDF-6 format, whichallows higher incident energies than 20 MeV. In the
NJOY2016, coupled energy-angle distributions in File 6of an evaluated nuclear data represented laboratory
angle-energy law (LAW=7 format) are converted into
the continuum energy-angle distribution form (ACE
LAW=61 format, named for ENDF File 6, Law 1)
triggered by the newfor=1 option in NJOY’s input which

226

N. Matsuda et al.

is now the default. Although the continuum energyangle representation (ACE LAW=61 format) is good foruse with the Monte-Carlo simulation codes, PHITS can
only treat laboratory angle-energy distribution form
(ACE LAW=67 format, named for ENDF File 6, Law 7)
for protons. Thus, modifications of NJOY2016 areneeded in order to produce an ACE library of
JENDL-4.0/HE. The original NJOY2016 was modified
based on the report about processing of the
JENDL/HE-2007 [13]. Processing procedures of
JENDL-4.0/HE with the modified version of NJOY2016
are described below.
2.1. Modifications of NJOY2016
The ACER module in NJOY2016 was modified to
produce the ACE library. The conversions fromlaboratory angle-energy law (ENDF LAW=7 format) tocontinuum energy-angle distribution form (ACE
LAW=61 format) are triggered by the no7=1 flag of
TOPFIL subroutine in ACER module. However,processing program relevant to no7 flag “off” was halted
because of program error. To properly store the coupledenergy-angle data into ACE library, new subroutine,
ACECSD having a similar function to ACENSD, wasprepared in ACELOD subroutine. The array size in the
ACER module was also increased as necessary because
the file size of each nucleus in JENDL-4.0/HE is larger
than those in typical evaluated nuclear data below
20 MeV.

2.2.2 ACE-formatted proton library
For the incident proton nuclear data, the MODER,
RECONR, and ACER modules were used in order. The
basic conditions of NJOY processing for incident proton
nuclear data are summarized in Table 2.
Table 2. Basic conditions of NJOY processing for incident
proton nuclear data.
Condition
Input parameter
Tolerance (Precision)
0.1%
Temperature
0K
Library identifier and suffix ID
89h
The ZAID for metastable nucleus, 242mAm is changed to95292.89h to give the uniquely ZAID.

3. V&V of the ACE library and discussion
3.1. Verification of the ACE library
Consistency checks for the produced ACE file were
performed with the ACER and VIEWR modules in
NJOY2016. The ACER module has a capability to readan ACE library and check the data for some common
problems [14]. The VIEWR module can generate color
Postscript files from an output file of the ACER module.
The principal cross-sections: (1) total, (2) absorption, (3)elastic, and (4) photon production, shown in Figure 1
were visually inspected.

2.2. Procedures to process ACE library
All the nuclear data for neutrons of 130 nuclei and for
protons of 133 nuclei in JENDL-4.0/HE were processed.
The processing procedures differ between incident
neutrons and protons.
2.2.1 ACE-formatted neutron library
In order to process the neutron-induced nuclear data,
the MODER, RECONR, BROADR, HEATR, THERMR,GASPR, PURR, and ACER modules were used in order.
For nuclei without unresolved resonance data, the PURR
module was skipped. The basic conditions of NJOY
processing for incident neutrons are summarized inTable 1.

Total
Absorption
Elastic
Photon production

Table 1. Basic conditions of NJOY processing for incident
neutron nuclear data.
Condition
Input parameter
Tolerance (Precision)
0.1%
Temperature
300 K
Upper boundary of thermal energy
4.6 eV
Treatment of Inelastic scattering
Free-gas modelin thermal energy region
Unresolved resonanceYes
Library identifier and suffix ID
89c
The ZAID for metastable nucleus, 242mAm is changed to95292.89c to give the uniquely ZAID.

Total
Absorption
Elastic
Photon production

Figure 1. Principal cross-sections of n+28Si generated fromthe JENDL-4.0/HE (upper) and JENDL/HE-2007 (lower).

Progress in Nuclear Science and Technology, Volume 6, 2019
The color Postscript files were also generated fromthe ACE library of JENDL/HE-2007 as a sterling
example for the ACE library processed the evaluatedhigh-energy
cross-sections.
Comparisons
wereconducted between the principal cross-sections of the
JENDL-4.0/HE and those of JENDL/HE-2007. Some
discrepancy observed in the figure arose from thedifferences of the evaluation processes between the
JENDL/HE-2007 and the JENDL-4.0/HE.
3.2. Validations of the ACE library
Validations of the ACE library of JENDL-4.0/HE
were carried out through benchmark calculations forneutron yields from the 9Be(p,xn) reactions at
10 MeV [15] and for high-energy shielding experiments
at TIARA (Takasaki Ion accelerator for Advanced
Radiation Application) [16, 17] and RCNP (ResearchCenter for Nuclear Physics, Osaka university) [18, 19]with PHITS version 2.82.
The calculated results by PHITS with JENDL-4.0/HE
were compared with the experimental data. Furthermore,
the results were compared with those of the INCL4.6
into PHITS.
3.2.1 Benchmark calculations for neutron yields
Figure 2 shows double-differential cross-sections for
10-MeV proton incidence on thin Beryllium target.

227

peak regions around 8 MeV are due to the experimental
uncertainty of time-of-flight method.
3.2.2 Benchmark calculations for shielding experiments
The experimental geometries of the high-energy
shielding experiments are shown in Figure 3. Quasimonoenergetic neutrons of 65 and 138 MeV are
generated by the 7Li(p,n)7Be reaction in TIARA and
RCNP experiments, respectively. Since the INCL4.6
could not reproduce the quasi-monoenergetic peak fromthe 7Li(p,n)7Be reactions, the calculations were started
from secondary neutrons which were generated at eachtarget position, and with solid angles (5.94×10−4,
3.13×10−4 sr) due to the collimators. The tally size in thecalculations reproduced the detector size in TIARA and
RCNP experiments.

TIARA experiment
Shield68-MeV protons
401 cmDetector

TargetEx.) 200 cm thick concrete

RCNP experimentEx.) 200 cm thick concrete
140-MeV protons
630 cmn1

noTargetDetectorShieldFigure 3. Experimental geometries of TIARA (upper) and
RCNP (lower) experiments.
Figure 2. Double-differential cross-sections at 15° and 30°.
The experimental data (black) are compared with thecalculated results by PHITS with JENDL-4.0/HE (red) and
INCL4.6 in PHITS (blue).

The experimental 9Be(p,xn) neutron spectra exhibit
two large peaks (n0 and n1) corresponding to the nuclear
structure. The calculated results by PHITS withJENDL-4.0/HE represented the two large peaks.
However, the INCL4.6 could not reproduce such kind ofpeak. In the calculated results with JENDL-4.0/HE, twosmall peaks around 6 MeV come from pseudo levels
assumed in the evaluation process based on the unknown
level structure of 9B [20]. In the comparison between theexperimental data and the calculated results withJENDL-4.0/HE, the small discrepancies observed in the

Figure 4 shows experimental data and calculated
results by the PHITS with JENDL-4.0/HE and with the
INCL4.6. The overestimations with the INCL4.6 of the
TIARA experiment at 100- and 150-cm-thick concrete
are improved by using the PHITS with JENDL-4.0/HE.
In the experimental data of TIARA experiment, the peakwidth around 60 MeV is broader than that of thecalculated result. They are due to the experimental
uncertainty of the time-of-flight method.
For the benchmark calculation of RCNP experiment,
there is no great distinction between the both calculation
results (i.e., the INCL4.6 already has a good prediction
accuracy for the incident energy region.).
Thorough the benchmark calculations, it was foundthat the accuracy of PHITS was improved by using theACE library of JENDL-4.0/HE. We recommend using

228

N. Matsuda et al.

the JENDL-4.0/HE up to 200 MeV instead of INC
model.

Figure 4. Experimental data and calculated results by PHITS
with JENDL-4.0/HE (red) and INCL4.6 in PHITS (blue) at
TIARA (upper) and RCNP (lower) experiments.

4. Conclusion
In order to improve the accuracy of Monte-Carlosimulations from 20 to 200 MeV, JENDL-4.0/HE wasreleased. The ACE library of JENDL-4.0/HE wasprocessed with the modified version of NJOY2016. The
accuracy of the ACE library was confirmed throughbenchmark calculations. It was concluded that werecommend using the ACE library of JENDL-4.0/HE up
to 200 MeV instead of INC model.
References[1] A. Boudard, J. Cugnon, J.-C. David, S. Leray and
D. Mancusi, New potentialities of the Liege
intranuclear cascade model for reactions inducedby nucleons and light charged particles, Phys. Rev.
C 87 (2013), p.014606.
[2] T. Sato, K. Niita, N. Matsuda, S. Hashimoto, Y.
Iwamoto, S. Noda, T. Ogawa, H. Iwase, H.
Nakashima, T. Fukahori, K. Okumura, T. Kai, S.
Chiba, T. Furuta and L. Sihver, Particle and Heavy
Ion Transport Code System PHITS, Version 2.52, J.
Nucl. Sci. Technol. 50 (2013), pp. 913-923.

[3] S. Kunieda, O. Iwamoto, N. Iwamoto, F. Minato, T.
Okamoto, T. Sato, H. Nakashima, Y. Iwamoto, H.
Iwamoto, F. Kitatani, T. Fukahori, Y. Watanabe, N.
Shigyo, S. Chiba, N. Yamamoto, M. Hagiwara, K.
Niita, K. Kosako, S. Hirayama and T. Murata, Proc.
the 2015 Symposium on Nuclear Data, November
19-20, 2015, Ibaraki Quantum Beam ResearchCenter, Tokai-mura, Ibaraki, Japan, (Overview of
JENDL-4.0/HE and benchmark calculations),
JAEA-Conf 2016-004, Japan Atomic Energy
Agency, (2016), pp. 41-46.
[4] O. Iwamoto, N. Iwamoto, S. Kunieda, F. Minato
and K. Shibata, The CCONE code system and its
application to nuclear data evaluation for fission
and other reactions, Nuclear Data Sheets 131(2016), pp. 259-288.
[5] S. Kunieda, S. Chiba, K. Shibata, A. Ichihara and E.
Sh. Sukhovitski, Coupled-channels optical model
analyses of nucleon-induced reactions for medium
and heavy nuclei in the energy region from 1 keV
to 200 MeV, J. Nucl. Sci. and Technol. 44 (2007),
pp. 838-852.
[6] S. Kunieda, R.C. Haight, T. Kawano, M.B.
Chadwick, S.M. Sterbenz, F.B. Bateman, O.A.
Wasson, S.M. Grimes, P. Maier-Komor, H.
Vonach, T. Fukahori and Y. Watanabe,
Measurement and model analysis of (n,xα) crosssections for Cr, Fe, 56Co, and 58,60Ni from thresholdenergy to 150 MeV, Phys. Rev. C85 (2012),
p.054602.
[7] K. Shibata, O. Iwamoto, T. Nakagawa, N. Iwamoto,A. Ichihara, S. Kunieda, S. Chiba, K. Furutaka, N.
Otsuka, T. Ohasawa, T. Murata, H. Matsunobu, A.
Zukeran, S. Kamada and J. Katakura, JENDL-4.0:
A new library for nuclear science and engineering,
J. Nucl. Sci. and Technol. 48 (2011), pp. 1-30.
[8] Y. Watanabe, K. Kosako, S. Kunieda, S. Chiba, R.
Fujimoto, H. Harada, M. Kawai, F. Maekawa, T.
Murata, H. Nakashima, K. Niita, N. Shigyo, S.
Shimakawa, N. Yamano and T. Fukahori, Status of
JENDL high energy file, Proc. Int. Conf. on
Nuclear Data for Science and Technology(ND2010), Jeju Island, Korea, April 26-30, 2010, J.
Kor. Phys. Soc. 59 (2011), pp. 1040-1045.
[9] R.E. MacFarlane, D.W. Muir, R.M. Boicourt, A.C.
Kahler and J.L. Conlin, The NJOY Nuclear Data
Processing System, Version 2016, LA-UR-1720093, Los Alamos National Laboratory, (2016).
[10] X-5 Monte Carlo Team, MCNP - A general
N-Particle transport code, Version 5: Volume I:
Overview and theory, LA-UR-03-1987, Los
Alamos National Laboratory, (2003).
[11] D.B. Pelowitz, J.W. Durkee, J.S. Elson, M.L.
Fensin, J.S. Hendricks, M.R. James, R.C. Johns,
G.W. McKinney, S.G. Mashnik, J.M. Verbeke, L.S.
Waters and T.A. Wilcox, MCNPX 2.7.0 extensions,
LA-UR-11-02295,
Los
AlamosNational
Laboratory, (2011).
[12] A. Trkov and M. Herman (Ed.), ENDF-6 Formats
Manual: Data Formats and Procedures for theProgress in Nuclear Science and Technology, Volume 6, 2019
Evaluated Nuclear Data Files: ENDF/B-VI and
ENDF/B-VII, BNL-90365-2009, National Nuclear
Data Center, Brookhaven National Laboratory,(2009).
[13] T. Sasa, T. Sugawara, K. Kosako and T. Fukahori,Continuous Energy Cross Section Library for
MCNP/MCNPX based on JENDL High Energy
File 2007, JAEA-Data/Code 2008-022, Japan
Atomic Energy Agency, (2008).
[14] R.E. Macfarlane and A.C. Kahler, Methods for
Processing ENDF/B-VII with NJOY, LA-UR-1004652, Los Alamos National Laboratory, (2010).
[15]Y. Iwamoto, Y. Sakamoto, N. Matsuda, Y. Nakane,
K. Ochiai, H. Kaneko, K. Niita, T. Shibata and H.
Nakashima, Measurements of double-differential
neutron-production cross-sections for the 9Be(p,xn)
and 9Be(d,xn) reactions at 10 MeV, Nucl. Inst. andMethods Phys. Res. A 598 (2009), pp.687-695.
[16] N. Nakao, H. Nakashima, T. Nakamura, Sh.
Tanaka, Su. Tanaka, K. Shin, M. Baba, Y.
Sakamoto and Y. Nakane, Transmission throughshields of quasi-monoenergetic neutrons generated
by 43- and 68-MeV Protons -I: Concrete shielding
experiment and calculation for practical application,
Nucl. Sci. Eng. 124 (1996), pp. 228-242.
[17] H. Nakashima, N. Nakao, Sh. Tanaka, T.
Nakamura, K. Shin, Su. Tanaka, H. Takada, S.
Meigo, Y. Nakane, Y. Sakamoto and M. Baba,
Transmission
throughshieldsofquasimonoenergetic neutrons generated by 43- and229

68-MeV Protons -II: Iron shielding experiment andanalysis for investigating calculational method andcross-section data, Nucl. Sci. Eng. 124 (1996), pp.
243-257.
[18] H. Yashima, H. Iwase, M. Hagiwara, Y. Kirihara,
S. Taniguchi, H. Yamakawa, K. Oishi, Y. Iwamoto,
D. Satoh, Y. Nakane, H. Nakashima, T. Itoga, N.
Nakao, T. Nakamura, A. Tamii and K. Hatanaka,
Benchmark experiment of neutron penetration
through iron and concrete shields for
hundreds-of-MeV quasi-monoenergetic neutrons-I:
Measurements of neutron spectrum by amultimoderator spectrometer, Nucl. Tecnol. 168(2008), pp. 298-303.
[19] M. Hagiwara, H. Iwase, Y. Kirihara, H. Yashima,
Y. Iwamoto, D. Satoh, Y. Nakane, H. Nakashima,
T. Nakamura, A. Tamii and K. Hatanaka,
Benchmark experiment of neutron penetration
through iron and concrete shields for
hundreds-of-MeV quasi-monoenergetic neutronsII: Measurements of neutron spectrum by anorganic liquid scintillator, Nucl. Tecnol. 168 (2008),
pp. 304-309.
[20] J.K. Tuli, Evaluated Nuclear Structure Data File
(ENSDF): A manual for preparation of data sets,
National Nuclear Data Center, Brookhaven
National Laboratory (BNL), BNL-NCS-51655-01/
02-Rev. (2001).
http://www.nndc.bnl.gov/ensdf/index.jsp