Meeting cross-section requirements for nuclear-energy design

Current requirements in cross-section data that are essential to nuclear-energy programmes are summarized and explained and some insight into how these data might be obtained is provided. The six sections of the paper describe: design parameters and target accuracies; data collection, evaluation and analysis; determination of high-accuracy differential nuclear data for technological applications; status of selected evaluated nuclear data; analysis of benchmark testing; identification of important cross sections and inferred needs. (U.K.)