Radiation Safety Information Computational Center (RSICC): An Information Analysis Center for Nuclear Science

Abstract

The Radiation Safety Information Computational Center (RSICC), founded in 1962 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), is a specialized information analysis center under the auspices of the Office of Science and Technical Information within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). RSICC is the sole organization responsible for the distribution of the MCNP® Monte Carlo code that is a reference tool for testing and evaluating nuclear data libraries. MCNP® is one of the primary tools utilized by the Validation of Nuclear Data Libraries (VaNDal) subgroup under the Working Party on Evaluation and Cooperation (WPEC) of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Since 2010, RSICC has distributed over 23,000 copies of the MCNP® code to our Worldwide customer base. Over the past decade, RSICC has distributed over 1,000 copies of MCNP® annually to our customers located in the U.S. and abroad. Approximately 50% of the MNCP® software packages distributed have been provided to U.S. universities and sponsored organizations whereas over 27% of the packages have been provided to foreign organizations and over 22% to domestic organizations that are not supported by RSICC’s sponsors. While there is high demand for the code, the distribution of the code is restricted to only approved countries because the code is regulated by the U.S. DOE. This paper provides a general overview of RSICC’s activities, services, and systems; provides information regarding Federal export control regulations for codes such as MCNP®†; and provides recommendations for the control and use of RSICC.