From ENSDF to NuDat: Disseminating Digestible Data Using Modern Web-based Technologies to Search, Filter, and Visualize Nuclear Data

The National Nuclear Data Center (NNDC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) has developed and maintained NuDat, a web application where users can explore several databases containing nuclear structure, nuclear decay, and neutron-induced nuclear reaction information. NuDat is the primary web application used to query and visualize meticulously evaluated recommended values derived from all published experimental nuclear structure and decay data contained within the Evaluated Nuclear Structure Data File (ENSDF). NuDat was first developed over 15 years ago and now there are over 4 million queries to NuDat each year for research, education, and a wide range of applications.

The modernized NuDat 3.0 contains responsive nuclear data visualizations to support user needs and uniquely visualize the dense and complex multi-dimensional scientific data available in ENSDF. Users can seamlessly interact with over 3,300 nuclides with intuitive pan and zoom gestures. NuDat 3.0 has a full range of features to support exploring nuclear data such as supplementary plots that can automatically sync to the current view of the interactive chart of nuclides.

Beyond the interactive chart of nuclides, NuDat offers a full suite of web applications to search and visualize nuclear data.The Advanced Cross-Variable Plot provides users with an interface to create various plots by selecting axis variables from a multitude of observable properties.Fully interactive level and decay schemes for relevant nuclei have been implemented.

The NNDC aims to improve NuDat based on community feedback with a focus on disseminating digestible data to a broad spectrum of users. NuDat's novel visualization tools provide users with an intuitive interface to the nuclear data within ENSDF. The ubiquitous demand for authoritative evaluated nuclear data emphasizes the need for modernizing NuDat using the latest computing technologies, in order to provide an enhanced user experience.