Nuclear Data Uncertainties in 2010: A Perspective

Six years have passed since the International Conference on Nuclear Data for Science and Technology held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, U.S.A.., 2004 (ND-2004) where this author presented a similar invited paper. The present paper discusses the progress made since 2004 in the production of covariance evaluations and their usage in applications. It also points out the challenges ahead for the nuclear science community in this field. The path to be be followed during the next several years in this field is fairly clear, but several barriers need to be overcome along the way. Among these are resource limitations (funding and manpower), constraints of existing nuclear data formats, applications code shortcomings, and the need to educate experimenters on how to properly quantify and report uncertainties in their measured data. These barriers are not insurmountable, but the nuclear data and applications communities need to give thoughtful consideration to setting priorities and making the technical choices that will impact the work of an entire generation of applied nuclear researchers.