11

Overall summary of the results so far reviewed for DB Questionnaire

contents

1. Revision process of the strategic plan for the Data Bank

2. Revision Process of new NEA Strategic Plan(2011-) at the Steering Committee

3. Structure of Questionnaire of Data Bank

4. Main Observation on the Answers to the Data Bank Questionnaire

5. Summary

1

2

Revision process of the strategic plan for the Data Bank

1. 2007-06 Future Plan for next 5-10 years from staff’s idea (position paper)

2. 2008-06 Discussion on Questionnaire to collect Member countries request

3. 2008-10 Questionnaire sent out 2008-11 Collected Qs. And started Analysis 2008-12 Preliminary results are summarized (results are presented at the bureau meeting of NSC)4. 2009-05 Main Observations on the Answers Given to the Data Bank Questionnaire NEA/DB/DOC(2009)1 4. 2009-6 Discussion on the Future of the DB

3

Revision Process of new NEA Strategic Plan(2011-)

at the Steering Committee

a) Assessment of the implementation of the current Strategic Plan (May-June 2009)

b) Preparation of a first draft of the new Strategic Plan (July-December 2009)

c) Policy debate at the Steering Committee (30 October 2009)

d) Collection and integration of comments from the member countries (January-March 2010)

e) Discussion and approval (April 2010)

ref: NEA/NE(2009)4

4

Questionnaire of Data Bank

Questionnaire structure

1. Assessment of Current role A: General (q. for Strategic Plan) B: Activity of DB done these 5 years

2. Ideas for the future A: General (Administrative relation with NSC and Main Secretariat) B: Activities

3. Role of Executive Group and of the Secretariat A: Executive Group (Performances) B: Meetings (Performances) C: Secretariat (Performances)

55

Main Observation on the Answers to the Data Bank Questionnaire

• 12 countries +1 Int. organization answered• Preliminary analysis was made and presented at the NSC Bureau

Meeting (04/12/2008).

• Current Role and Activities: Current strategic plan is adequate for role and goal. Also confirmed its validity for next 5-6 years. Clearly to be specified: Data Base/Knowledge preservation and their maintenance (including training courses)

• DB should be an international technical knowledge pool. Current ability should be kept.

5

66

Current and Future Activities

• DB provides a very good and essential services, even taking into account its rather limited resources.

• DB works meet needs of member countries.• Current Main Products (High Score) Computer Program, Codes and App. Data Services Nuclear Data: EXFOR,JANIS, JEFF Safety Project Data Base: CCVM• Requests: All integral experimental data (IRPhE, SINBAD) should be the same level as ICSBEP.

• Relation with EC should be enhanced. It would be great value if NEA and EC work could be better coordinated.

• DB could be the place, where the results of EC nuclear energy research programs would be preserved.

• Training courses are very useful activity that must be strengthened.

6

7

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

High

Middle

Low

No input

7

Annex-1(ALL): Needs and Priority for the Data Bank Work Area

　

High Priority Area: (Score High above 8)

Computer Program Services : Integral data, Computer codes, TrainingNuclear Data services : EXFOR, JEFF, Neutron Data,Processed Applic. LibraryKnowledge Preservation : Data Base product NSC/DBBenchmarks : Benchmarks of Data and CodesTDB project : not high score due to a lesser visibility but important project with collaboration with RWMC.

88

Relation with others (General items)

• Relation between the NEA Main Secretariat and DB : should remain as today. (But the status of DB should be defined in a clearer way.)

• Level of autonomy of DB from NSC: is adequate. Close cooperation should be kept. However, independency should be also kept.

DB should be managed by a separate committee/group, which might work in close co-operation with NSC.

• More active industry participation is needed to make quick response to the industry's needs. (DB should respond for GEN-3or 3+ rather than GEN-4.)

(More services to industries.) (More involvement of industry: Not too much focus on the research community and

future energy system.)

• The DB should cooperate with the ITER project.

8

99

Computer program Licenses

• i) Multi-User/Single-Site (continue current procedure) yes: 59% 　 Multi-user/single-site license system is better and best solution for current users if it is possible. But we understand that the distribution rules depend on the policy of providing county.

• ii) Single-User/Single-Site yes: 2% No coments

iii) Applying different rules yes: 24%

1. Some software obviously needs restriction, but for codes that could be safely distributed freely, there is no need for unnecessary restrictions.

• 2. Many codes maintained by the NEA can safely be distributed as freeware. Extra caution should be applied to the rest, of course. More people will be able to easily use the freeware codes if the threshold for retrieval is gone (i.e. click on a weblink). NEA statistics will go up too.

• iv) Any other proposal yes: 15%

1. Preference in UK expressed for multi-user/single-site licences where possible. Also, there was a comment that as currently written program licences could be arranged by direct links with the requester, which might potentially give problems as the Data Bank staff will not have the close involvement the current liaison officer route provides.

On MCNP a comment was received that it would be a good idea to build in a time limit to the executable so that the code will not run after that time.

I don't think any of these options are the optimal for either the DB or users. I would like to see all codes that can be made "freely" available via download directly by users (not liaison officers) with limited or no costly admin (DB password only?). However, many codes will have restrictions that required admin costs. If some can be removed, hopefully this will reduce DB costs.

Preferred　Licences　for　ComputerProgram　Services

MU-SS/ Currentproc.SU- SS

Diff　Rules

Any　Other

9

1010

Data Bank role for knowledge preservation

1.Data Bank should promote experimental measurements and evaluations by all available means. Knowledge preservation is a VITAL activity for which the NEA has an important leadership role.

2.Among the goals of the DB it is mentioned that Computer codes and basic nuclear data are fundamental tools. It is essential that these codes

and data be internationally validated and disseminated in order to become common tools for actors in the nuclear area.

3.An equally important role of the DB is the sustainable preservation of these data over long periods of time ensuring an adequate maintenance of the data bases and free access. This can only be guaranteed by the international organizations.

4.Regularly monitor the current needs and assess the future needs of the member countries. Periodically review the status of the nuclear infrastructure (and associated staff) and make

recommendations, with sufficient anticipation

5. The knowledge for knowledge preservation covers many fields of nuclear technology. The Data Bank should play a role making and maintaining the databases which are discussed and selected by other parts of the NEA.

6. Current activities on this item of DB are very active. Data Bank’s recent efforts to acquire old books and related material should be continued and enlarged, if possible

10

1111

Part III Secretariat

• Role of EG for the needs of member countries: well received, no complains. (7.9)• Role of EG for defining the priorities and contents of DB programmes: well received, no complains. (7.6)• Relation between EG and NSC Most countries are satisfied with current relation between EG and NSC. But following comments are given: 1. The members from the other technical standing committee might be better to attend

the meeting. 2. Of course, the relations are good, but the role of the EG being unclear the situation

is not satisfactory; the DB management group should be formally independent from the NSC.

Largely yes(65%)• EG privides sufficient guidance to the Secretariat?• Composition of EG is appropriate? 1. Generally yes, however the degree of delegate participation is still not very high. It

may be that some of the participants are not the best people to represent the user base of the databank in their respective countries.

2. Ad-hoc participation by external experts for special topics is appreciated. 3. Direct links with users should give more suitable inputs to improve role and actions

of DB.

Executive Group

11

1212

Meeting of EG and Secretariat

• Globally satisfied with the EG? Satisfaction: (7.6) But the unclear role of the EG lowers the attendance and the significance of the EG meetings.

• Quality of EG meeting Lowest points: delegates participation (6.7) The meetings have recently greatly improved. The only point I could score the meetings poor on is the degree of the

participation of the delegates.

• Meeting Frequency Adequate(69%)

• Response of Secretariat to the guidance of EG Satisfaction: (8.2)

• Performance of DB Secretariat past 5 years. Satisfaction: (8.5)

• Secretariat involvement in the definition of programme of work of DB is Adequate(77%)

• Necessity for structure change in DB secretariat No(77%) 1. However, as the activities of the Data Bank are expected to cover wider fields than the

present ones, the flexibility of the structure would be needed . 2. I’m not sure if I know the structure of the Data Bank Secretariat even if I know almost

all of them. It might be useful that there were available (at least the EG members) a updated list of the DB staff with a short definition of their duties.

12

13

Summary of Questionnaire

• To be international center of reference for the member countries with respect to basic nuclear tools, i.e.,

Service center for fundamental tools for nuclear technology:　　　 Nuclear Data and Computer Codes

　　　　 Nuclear Data Services　　　　 Computer Program Services TDB data 　　　　 Database/Knowledge preservation, maintenance and transfer

• From the Analysis of the requests of member countries (DB Questionnaire)

No explicit change for main activities:　　 To be an International Technical Knowledge Pool

14

Nuclear Data Services

Efficient and effective use of high quality dataCompletely open use through Web

Data Base: CINDA (bibliographic) EXFOR (experimental) Close cooperation with IAEA/NDS NRDC EVA (evaluated)　　　　　　　　　　　　 　　 JEFF/EFF JENDL,… Close cooperation with member countries and EUApplication: JANIS (user interface for Nuclear Data) For Data User Interface on Web: Nuclear Data Plotting Code

JEFF Data Project: 　　　　　　　 To develop and promote the use of high quality evaluated nuclear data sets in standard format for a wide range of scientific and technical applications. 　　　

15

Computer Codes ServicesMore than 2000 computer codes and Integral data

Distribution rule for each code and application library is given by the policy of the donated country

Licenses MultiUser-SingleSite : the best for current users SingleUser-SingleSite : only for US origin codes

Jobs: Collection/acquisition Testing Packaging Distribution

This activity has a rather high cost in terms of human resources of experts of higher technical background in the software and applications.

Change of distribution rule for US codes (by newly introduced export control)Work load is significantly increased after the new rules are applied to US origin codes

due to the end user identification and delivery of licenses.

16

Data Base/Knowledge Preservation,

maintenance and transfer (1)

Data preservation for long periods: only attainable by International Organisations

Data Base Development and preservation important for NEA and member countries

IRPhE (reactor physics experiments)IFPE (fuel performance)SINBAD (reactor shielding)SFCOMPO (PIE data: burnup); ICSBEP (criticality experiments)CCVM(safety project)

And Others (requests from main NEA secretriat)

17

Data Base/Knowledge Preservation,

maintenance and transfer (2)Training Courses for the most popular computer codes In 2008: 10 training courses for a total of 200 persons This activity is strongly supported by member countries

Legacy books distribution: Data Bank distributes important legacy books released by

the authors to the Data Bank after publishers has reverted their copyrights. Up to now 10 books are listed and distributed to the requesters in particularly students.

This also is welcomed by member countries.

18

Main items to be considered in the future(1)

Administrative:

Enlargement of member countries (Slovenia, Canada, Australia, Croatia, possibly USA)

and member institutions

( ITER,US-NRC, …)

Request of clarification of specific role of Data Bank and relation with Standing Committees

19

Main items to be considered in the future (2)

Activities:

Tighter relation with Industry. Requested for quicker response to the industry

needs for Gen III or III+ instead of GEN IV. More services to the Industry.

To extend relations with EU More close collaboration with EU. Enabling participation of NEA secretariats to the EU projects.