Report to the 238U discrepancy task force on SIOB fits to the ORNL, CBNM, and JAERI transmission data

The computer code SIOB has been used to obtain least-squares simultaneous-sample shape fits to the recent 238U transmission data of ORNL, CBNM, and JAERI over the energy regions 1460 to 1820 eV, 2470 to 2740 eV, and 3820 to 4000 eV. The fits indicate that much of the systematic discrepancy in the published neutron widths from these data arose in the data analysis procedure. Except for the 3820- to 4000-eV JAERI data, the systematic differences in the resulting neutron widths from the present widths are larger than those contained in any existing evaluation. These fits were performed as part of the work for the NEANDC ad hoc 238U Discrepancy Task Force. 20 references