Modern Covariances and Uncertainty Quantification in Nuclear Data and Applications

Evaluated nuclear data lies at the heart of the interface between nuclear physics and the broader world of scientific and societal applications of that nuclear physics, from modeling the life cycle of stars and cataclysmic astrophysical events to the production of power and radiological medical therapies and diagnostics. Quantifying the uncertainties of that nuclear data, and propagating that uncertainty forward, is crucial to enable these applications to determine the level of confidence level of their predictions, which has a significant impact on the reliability of the extracted science and the safety of the society applications. This presentation will cover recent efforts that span the whole gamut of producing nuclear data covariances for new evaluations, propagation of those uncertainties into applications, and novel techniques under development to fill in the gaps in our current nuclear data libraries when new evaluations are unavailable.