A depletion chain file has a <depletion_chain> root element with one or more
<nuclide> child elements. The decay, reaction, and fission product data for
each nuclide appears as child elements of <nuclide>.
The <nuclide> element contains information on the decay modes, reactions,
and fission product yields for a given nuclide in the depletion chain. This
element may have the following attributes:
name: Name of the nuclide half_life: Half-life of the nuclide in [s] decay_modes: Number of decay modes present decay_energy: Decay energy released in [eV] reactions: Number of reactions present
For each decay mode, a :ref:`io_chain_decay` appears as a child of
<nuclide>. For each reaction present, a :ref:`io_chain_reaction` appears as
a child of <nuclide>. If the nuclide is fissionable, a :ref:`io_chain_nfy`
appears as well.
The <decay> element represents a single decay mode and has the following
attributes:
type: The type of the decay, e.g. 'ec/beta+' target: The daughter nuclide produced from the decay branching_ratio: The branching ratio for this decay mode
The <reaction> element represents a single transmutation reaction. This
element has the following attributes:
type: The type of the reaction, e.g., '(n,gamma)' Q: The Q value of the reaction in [eV] target: The nuclide produced in the reaction (absent if the type is 'fission') branching_ratio: The branching ratio for the reaction
The <neutron_fission_yields> element provides yields of fission products for
fissionable nuclides. Normally, it has the follow sub-elements:
energies: Energies in [eV] at which yields for products are tabulated
fission_yields: Fission product yields for a single energy point. This element itself has a number of attributes/sub-elements:
energy: Energy in [eV] at which yields are tabulated products: Names of fission products data: Independent yields for each fission product
In the event that a nuclide doesn't have any known fission product yields, it is possible to have that nuclide borrow yields from another nuclide by indicating the other nuclide in a single parent attribute. For example:
<neutron_fission_yields parent="U235"/>