THE CENTRE FOR RADIONUCLIDE DATA
Accreditation Certificate No BSSRD MAE 06-2001

• Centre creation history
• Objectives of the Centre
• Nuclide reference book
• International chart of the nuclides
• The database "Nuclear characteristics of nuclides"
• International nuclear databases
• International cooperation
• General relations of the Centre
• Publications

Centre creation history

With the purpose of obtaining "best" values of nuclear characteristics among a variety of published measurement results, which frequently are not overlapped, additional investigations, which have got a name of nuclear data EVALUATION, are required. The evaluation includes data selection and analysis, corrections inserting to results of original works taking into account the current values of fundamental constants, available reference data, and specifications, as well as statistical data processing, according to accepted rules.

For characteristics of 300 applied radionuclides this important task was first formulated and solved in four-volume proceedings of a group of Radium Institute's employees, headed by V.P. Chechev. The collections of evaluated data, published in 1980 - 1988 got reputation of new-type reference books in domestic scientific literature. They included tables with the values of nuclear characteristics, each of which was resulted from analyzing of total experimental information.

Publication of these collections represented a significant progress in supplying of Russian scientists and engineers with the perfect nuclear data. However, the needs in computerized data called to being the requirement to form a computer database including decay characteristics of radionuclides and parameters of reference radionuclide sources. That's why in 1993 the Centre for Radionuclide Data (CRD) was established at Khlopin Radium Institute with the purpose to develop the mentioned above works aimed at evaluation and improvement of radionuclide decay characteristics. The CRD is functionally related with the Branch Service for Standard Reference Data (BSSRD) under the Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation through the Head Branch Scientific Centre at Atominform and with Russian Centers for Nuclear Data at the Kurchatov Institute (KIAE), Institute of Physics and Power Engineering (IPPE), and Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute (PNPI).

Objectives of the Centre

• creation and keeping of collection of original and evaluated (recommended and reference) data on decay characteristics and radiations of applied radionuclides;
• upgrading of database "Nuclear characteristics of nuclides";
• development of proposals for refinement of nuclear data;
• development of methods for data evaluation;
• dissemination of the evaluated (recommended) radionuclide data;
• preparing nuclide reference books and charts;
• participation in international cooperation on decay data evaluation.

Nuclide reference book

In 1995 the Centre for Radionuclide Data together with the Head Branch Scientific Centre at Atominform prepared and published the reference book containing brief information about characteristics of stable and radioactive isotopes, which have been known at the moment of publication for 112 chemical elements.

The reference book contains the evaluated values of basic characteristics of nuclides: masses, natural abundance, thermal neutron activation cross-sections for stable and natural long-lived nuclides; masses, half-lives, decay energies for radioactive nuclides. It represents a distinctive "guide" over the nuclides and is destined for being used by extended circle of various-level specialists.

In 2002 a new version of the mentioned above reference book (Nuclide Guide-2) was published by CNIIAtominform publicity. It contains the extended data for nuclides of 118 chemical elements, with account for recent information. In 2004 the improved version of this reference book was published in China in Russian, English, and Chinese (Guide-3).

International Chart of the Nuclides

In 1998 for the first time in Russia (Project Manager - Director of the Head Branch Scientific Centre at Atominform T.V. Golashvili) the first issue of nuclide tables was realized in a form of wall-chart similar to those, which had earlier been published in Germany, the USA, France, and Japan. The nuclide chart was created on the basis of the database "Nuclear characteristics of nuclides". Number of nuclides included into this chart exceeds three and a half thousand.

The following information in chart squares is presented for radioactive nuclides in lines situated in fixed order:

• Nuclide symbol provided with mass number
• Excess mass
• Ground state spin
• Half-life
• Decay modes
• Decay energies and average radiation energies
• Energies of most intense radiation components.

Nuclide abundance in natural mixture of isotopes (in percents) instead of half-life is given for stable nuclides, and in the last line - cross-section of nuclide activation caused by thermal neutrons.

New version of International Chart of the Nuclides was published in 2003 with participation of scientists from Chinese Institute for Atomic Energy. In 2008 it was published also in China.

The database "Nuclear characteristics of nuclides"
(Certificate of registration No 0229804914)

The database contains characteristics of more than 3500 nuclides known to 2009. All the nuclides are subdivided into three types: stable, radioactive artificial and radioactive long-lived natural. The recommended values and their uncertainties in the database have been obtained using the international files ENSDF and DDEP and own evaluations realized by Centre's experts.

International nuclear databases

The Centre of radionuclide data supplies an information and is currently provided with available data from the following international databases:

• international base of the evaluated radionuclide data - NUCLEIDE,
• nternational evaluated nucleus structure data file - ENSDF.

International cooperation

The Centre of radionuclide data takes active part in the international cooperative project aimed at evaluation of decay characteristics for applied radionuclides (Decay Data Evaluation Project). The goal of this cooperation consists in development and publication of the data to be recommended for 300 radionuclides being in practical application. Outcomes of the international cooperation for 149 radionuclides (up to 2009-02-16) have been published in the Monograph of the International Bureau of Poises and Measures (BIPM, France) and presented in the international database of the evaluated radionuclide data NUCLEIDE.

Relations of Radionuclide Data Centre

Publications

1. Kholnov Yu.V., Chechev V.P., Kamynov Sh.V., et al. Radiation Characteristics of Radionuclides Used in National Economy. Estimated Data: Reference Book. M.: Atomizdat. - 1980. - 376 p.
2. Kholnov Yu.V., Chechev V.P., Kamynov Sh.V., et al. Estimated Values of Nuclear-Physical Characteristics of Radioactive Nuclides Used in National Economy. Reference Book. M.: Energoizdat. - 1982. - 312 p.
3. Kholnov Yu.V., Chechev V.P., Kamynov Sh.V., et al. Estimated Values of Nuclear-Physical Characteristics of Radioactive Nuclides Used in Engineering and Medicine. Reference Book. M.: Energoatomizdat. - 1984. - 184 p.
4. Chechev V.P., Kousmenko N.K., Sergeev V.O., et al. Estimated Values of Nuclear-Physical Characteristics of Transuranium Radionuclides. Reference Book. н.: Energoatomizdat. - 1988. - 248 p.
5. Golashvili T.V., Chechev V.P., Lbov A.A. Nuclide Reference Book. Moscow, CNIIAtominform. - 1995. - 440 p.
6. Be M.-M., Browne E., Chechev V. et al. Table de Radionucleides. BNM-CEA /DTA/ LNHB. - 1999. - 192 p.
7. Golashvili T.V., Chechev V.P., Lbov A.A., et al. Nuclide Reference Book-2. Moscow, CNIIAtominform. - 2002. - 348 p.
8. Be M.-M., Chiste V., Dulieu C., Browne E., Chechev V., et al. Table of Radionuclides (Vol.1 - A = 1 to 150), Bureau International des Poids et Mesures. - Paris. - 2004. - 285 p.
9. Be M.-M., Chiste V., Dulieu C., Browne E., Chechev V., et al. Table of Radionuclides (Vol.2 - A = 151 to 242), Bureau International des Poids et Mesures. - Paris. - 2004. - 282 p.
10. Golashvili T.V., Chechev V.P., Patarakin O.O., et al. Nuclide Reference Book-3. The 3-rd publ., rev. and compl. (in Russ., Engl., Chi.) // Publicity for atomic energy, Beijing. - 2004. - 336 p.
11. Chechev V.P. The Evaluation of ²³⁸Pu, ²⁴⁰Pu, and ²⁴²Pu.// International Conference on Nuclear Data for Science and Technology, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 26 September - 1 October 2004. Part 1. Editors: R.C. Haight,et al. Melville, New York, 2005. AIP Conference Proceedings, v. 769. p. 91 - 94.
12. Chechev V.P. The Evaluation of ²⁴²Cm and ²⁴⁴Cm Decay Data.// Physics of Atomic Nuclei, 2006,v. 69, No. 7, p.1188-1197.
13. Chechev V P., Kuzmenko N. K. Decay Data Evaluation Project (DDEP): Evaluation of the Main ²³³Pa Decay Characteristics.// Applied Radiations and Isotopes, 2006,v. 64, No. 10-11, p. 1401-1409.
14. Be M.-M., Chiste V., Dulieu C., Browne E., Chechev V., Kuzmenko N. et al. Table of Radionuclides (Vol.3 - A = 3 to 244). - Bureau International des Poids et Mesures. - Paris. - 2006. - 210 p.
15. Be M.-M., Chiste V., Dulieu C., Browne E., Chechev V., Kuzmenko N. et al. Table of Radionuclides (Vol.4 - A = 133 to 252). - Bureau International des Poids et Mesures. - Paris. - 2008. - 282 p.