The National Nuclear Data Center is an organization based in the

Brookhaven National Laboratory Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratories, United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Upton, New York, a hamlet of the Brookhaven, New York, Town of Brookhaven. It w ...

that acts as a repository for data regarding

nuclear chemistry Nuclear chemistry is the sub-field of chemistry dealing with radioactivity, nuclear processes, and transformations in the nuclei of atoms, such as nuclear transmutation and nuclear properties. It is the chemistry of radioactive elements such as t ...

, such as

nuclear structure Understanding the structure of the atomic nucleus is one of the central challenges in nuclear physics. Models The cluster model The cluster model describes the nucleus as a molecule-like collection of proton-neutron groups (e.g., alpha particl ...

decay Decay may refer to: Science and technology * Bit decay, in computing * Decay time (fall time), in electronics * Distance decay, in geography * Software decay, in computing Biology * Decomposition of organic matter * Mitochondrial decay, in g ...

, and

reaction Reaction may refer to a process or to a response to an action, event, or exposure. Physics and chemistry *Chemical reaction *Nuclear reaction *Reaction (physics), as defined by Newton's third law * Chain reaction (disambiguation) Biology and ...

data, as well as historical information regarding previous experiments and literature. According to the ResearchGATE scientific network, "The National Nuclear Data Center NNDC collects, evaluates, and disseminates nuclear physics data for basic nuclear research and applied nuclear technologies." The current Center Head is Dr. David Brown.

History

The predecessor group to the NNDC was founded in 1951 when a group known as the Brookhaven Neutron Cross Section Compilation Group was formed at the

. In 1955 this group published the reference book "BNL-325," which had to do with the cross-sections of

neutrons The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , that has no electric charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. The neutron was discovered by James Chadwick in 1932, leading to the discovery of nuclear fission in 1938, the f ...

. After being renamed the Sigma Center, the group was moved to the Reactor Physics Division of the Nuclear Engineering Department in the Brookhaven Lab in 1960. At around that time, the Cross Section Evaluation Group was formed in the same division, and the two groups worked closely together and shared support personnel. In 1964, nuclear theorist Dr. Charles Porter, head of the Cross Section Evaluation Group, died, and Dr. John Stehn, head of the Sigma Center, ended up becoming the acting head of both the Sigma Center and the Group. 1967 saw the two groups merge into the National Neutron Cross Section Center (NNCSC), with Dr. Sol Pearlstein as acting director, officially being appointed Director of the NNCSC in 1968. In 1977, the Center was given the additional responsibility for nuclear structure and decay data by the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA), the predecessor of the Department of Energy, and its name was then changed to the National Nuclear Data Center. Dr. Charles Dunford served as Center Head from 1992 to 2002, with the exception of a two-year leave of absence (1993-1995) when he served as Section Head for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Nuclear Data Section. During his leave of absence Mulki Bhat was named Acting Center Head. Since then, the head has been succeeded by Dr. Pavel Oblozinskiy, Dr. Michal Herman and then Dr. Alejandro Sonzogni and presently Dr. David Brown.

Present activities

The NNDC carries out its original mission of

nuclear physics Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies th ...

and

data storage, evaluation and dissemination to this day. This data is to be used "for basic nuclear research, applied nuclear technologies including energy, shielding, medical and homeland security." In 2004, the NNDC began a modernization program which consisted of digitization of data and offering new web services. As part of the program, the Center has upgraded to

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

-based data storage and computing platforms, as well as implementing the additional use of

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

and

Sybase Sybase, Inc. was an enterprise software and services company. The company produced software relating to relational databases, with facilities located in California and Massachusetts. Sybase was acquired by SAP in 2010; SAP ceased using the Syba ...

relational database software.

References

{{Authority control Non-profit organizations based in New York (state) Brookhaven National Laboratory