Cross-Section Covariance Data Processing with the AMPX Module PUFF-IV

Abstract

The ENDF community is endeavoring to release an updated version of the ENDF/B-VII library (ENDF/B-VII.1). In the new release several new evaluations containing covariance information have been added, as the community strives to add covariance information for use in programs like the TSUNAMI (Tools for Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analysis Methodology Implementation) sequence of SCALE (Ref 1). The ENDF/B formatted files are processed into libraries to be used in transport calculations using the AMPX code system (Ref 2) or the NJOY code system (Ref 3). Both codes contain modules to process covariance matrices: PUFF-IV for AMPX and ERRORR in the case of NJOY. While the cross section processing capability between the two code systems has been widely compared, the same is not true for the covariance processing. This paper compares the results for the two codes using the pre-release version of ENDF/B-VII.1.