The European Activation System: EASY-2007 overview
This document gives an overview of the European Activation System (EASY) as released in 2007. EASY-2007 consists of a wide range of codes, data and documentation all aimed at satisfying the objective of calculating the response of materials irradiated in a flux of neutrons or charged particles. The main difference from the previous version is that in addition to neutron-induced reactions, it is now possible to also consider deuteron- or proton-induced reactions. It is designed to investigate both fusion devices and accelerator based materials test facilities that will act as intense sources of high energy particles causing significant activation of the surrounding materials. The very general nature of the calculational method and the data libraries means that it is applicable (with some reservations) to all situations (e.g. fission reactors or neutron sources) where materials are exposed to neutrons, deuterons or protons below 60 MeV. EASY can be divided into two parts: firstly the data and code development tools and secondly user tools and data. The former are required to develop the latter, but users of EASY only need to be able to use the inventory code FISPACT and be aware of the contents of the EAF library (the data source). The extensive documentation set for EASY is described in detail below. The generation of the European Activation File (EAF) is carried out using the SAFEPAQ-II application that has been developed from the SYMPAL and SAFEPAQ code systems. SAFEPAQ-II uses as input many world-wide sources of nuclear data. These evaluated files, calculations and experimental data are used to construct a collection of cross section data for reactions on a large set of stable and unstable target nuclides, a decay data file and other data libraries required by FISPACT. This overview will describe the complete EASY documentation set, describe briefly the FISPACT-2007 inventory code, the contents of the EAF library, the EASY User Interface, the SAFEPAQ-II tool and give the quality assurance (QA) procedures under which all development work is conducted. In addition, the availability of EASY is discussed - both the computer platforms on which it is available and the conditions for its use. Users are recommended to investigate the available documentation and become familiar with the FISPACT code and the EAF libraries. The FISPACT User manual contains many examples showing the capabilities of the code, and although it is easy to run inventory calculations without studying the manual, users who do this will miss many of the advanced features which will simplify and enhance their inventory calculations.