Neutron activation calculator for the web.
This is a web interface to the periodictable available on github.
The activation web frontend is in the activation subdirectory and the cgi backend is in cgi-bin. Update the server with something like:
sudo cp -rp activation/* /var/www/resources/activation
sudo cp -p cgi-bin/nact.py /var/www/cgi-bin
The web page uses the date of activate/index.html to show the last modification date on the program, so be sure to preserve attributes in copy.
Be sure the web server is configured to use python 3, with the periodictable package updated to the latest version:
sudo pip3 install periodictable --upgrade
Be sure that changes to the periodictable backend are noted at the end of the help section in index.html in the repository. As well as informing users of updates this will also set the last modification date on index.html.
For testing you can run the server from the repository:
python server.py [host | host:port]
Additional files:
-
endf/* was used to generate the graphs of thermal resonances. It is not needed unless you wish to update the graphs, for example, when new versions of the endf database are released.
-
server.py is used to run a test server for debugging the web application, or showing potential new features to users. See the help inside the file for details on running the server.
-
cgi-bin/massfrac.py computes mass fractions for the elements in a compound. It is not yet used by the web frontend.
-
cgi-bin/hello.py is a minimal test script for python cgi.
The backend service can be used directly for low volume traffic. For high volume, just install and use periodictable directly from Python.
To request a calculation, send a POST request with the following fields to https://www.ncnr.nist.gov/cgi-bin/nact.py. The fields are documented in the live version. The defaults for missing fields are indicated below. Note that the "Time off beam" field on the input form is appended as the final value for the rest field. decay and abundance are not directly controlled on the web form, but are instead set using data fields in the web client url.
request = {
calculate: target, // target is "scattering" or "activation" or "all"
sample: '', // Material
flux: '100000', // Thermal flux
Cd: '0', // Cd ratio
fast: '0', // Thermal/fast ratio
mass: '0', // Mass
exposure: '1', // Time on beam
rest: '[0,1,24,360]', // Time off beam
density: '0', // Density
thickness: '1', // Thickness
wavelength: '1', // Source neutrons
xray: 'Cu Ka', // Source Xrays
decay: '0.001', // target for "Time to decay below"
abundance: 'IAEA' // natural abundance tables (IAEA or NIST)
}The response is a JSON object with the following fields
response = {
'success': True,
'sample': {
'name': sample,
'formula': str(chem),
'mass': mass,
'density': chem.density,
'thickness': thickness,
'natural_density': chem.natural_density
}
'activation': { // if calculate is 'activation' or 'all'
'flux': fluence,
'fast': fast_ratio,
'Cd': Cd_ratio,
'exposure': exposure,
'rest': rest_times,
'activity': [
{
'isotope': el.isotope, 'reaction': el.reaction,
'product': el.daughter, 'halflife': el.Thalf_str,
'comments': el.comments, 'levels': activity_el,
}
// ...
],
'total': total,
'decay_level': decay_level,
'decay_time': decay_time
}
'scattering': { // if calculate is 'scattering' or 'all'
'neutron': {
'wavelength': wavelength,
'energy': nsf.neutron_energy(wavelength),
'velocity': nsf.VELOCITY_FACTOR/wavelength
},
'xs': {'coh': xs[0], 'abs': xs[1], 'incoh': xs[2]},
'sld': {'real': sld[0], 'imag': sld[1], 'incoh': sld[2]},
'penetration': penetration,
'transmission': 100*exp(-thickness/penetration)
}
'xray_scattering': { // if calculate is 'scattering' or 'all'
'xray': {
'wavelength': xray_wavelength,
'energy': xsf.xray_energy(xray_wavelength)
},
'sld': {'real': xsld[0], 'imag': xsld[1]}
}
}and on failure:
response = {
'success': False,
'error': 'unexpected exception',
'detail':{'query': stack traceback}
}$ curl -s -d "sample=Co" -X POST https://www.ncnr.nist.gov/cgi-bin/nact.py | python -m json.tool
{
"sample": {
"name": "Co",
"density": 8.9,
"natural_density": 8.9,
"thickness": 1.0,
"mass": 1.0,
"formula": "Co"
},
"activation": {
"flux": 100000.0,
"decay_level": 0.001,
"total": [
0.5088248094656863,
0.009706843055148993,
1.550197781340068e-05,
1.5423998799711213e-05
],
"rest": [
0,
1,
24,
360
],
"activity": [
{
"reaction": "act",
"product": "Co-60",
"halflife": "5.272 y",
"comments": "s for 10m isomer added to ground state",
"levels": [
1.550756280503848e-05,
1.5507330056885684e-05,
1.5501977813400642e-05,
1.5423998799711213e-05
],
"isotope": "Co-59"
},
{
"reaction": "act",
"product": "Co-60m+",
"halflife": "10.5 m",
"comments": "",
"levels": [
0.5088093019028804,
0.009691335725091536,
2.6450954673146495e-42,
0.0
],
"isotope": "Co-59"
},
{
"reaction": "2n",
"product": "Co-61",
"halflife": "1.65 h",
"comments": "Co-61 prod from Co-60m only",
"levels": [
7.306767120646388e-16,
4.800459878001244e-16,
3.055674902007567e-20,
1.5291619557875176e-81
],
"isotope": "Co-59"
},
{
"reaction": "2n",
"product": "Co-61",
"halflife": "1.65 h",
"comments": "Co-61 prod assuming all Co-60m has decayed to Co-60",
"levels": [
1.3649499897275873e-16,
8.967560554449202e-17,
5.7081926346341585e-21,
2.8565705754412276e-82
],
"isotope": "Co-59"
}
],
"exposure": 1.0,
"decay_time": 1.5773675158317233,
"fast": 0.0,
"Cd": 0.0
},
"scattering": {
"sld": {
"real": 2.2645416201426363,
"imag": 0.009403091502484154,
"incoh": 5.632988294016107
},
"xs": {
"coh": 0.07085810248318081,
"abs": 1.8806183004968307,
"incoh": 0.43843639843243204
},
"penetration": 0.4184253079898973,
"neutron": {
"wavelength": 1.0,
"energy": 81.80420235572412,
"velocity": 3956.0339760560055
},
"transmission": 9.163767420488476
},
"xray_scattering": {
"xray": {
"wavelength": 1.5418,
"energy": 8.041522080237366
},
"sld": {
"real": 63.020248367719645,
"imag": 9.14097379704212
}
},
"success": true
}