[SciPy-Dev] ANN: PyNE v0.1

Sat May 5 03:01:03 EDT 2012

Hello All,

I am pleased to announce the first release of PyNE, or <goog_179606944>
Python for Nuclear Engineering <http://pyne.github.com/>.  While this is a
domain
specific package, inside of the nuclear industry it is similar
is scope to SciPy.  I am announcing here to hopefully gain
some traction with interested parties who may be monitoring
SciPy.   Moreover, there are some parts which may hold a
more general interest (dealing with wrapping C++) if anyone
is interested in breaking these out.

Please feel free to contact me with questions, comments,
complaints, or contributions.  The release notes are posted
below.

Be Well
Anthony

======================
PyNE 0.1 Release Notes
======================

PyNE 0.1 is the first release of Python for Nuclear Engineering project
after an initial last year of effort. PyNE is a free and open source
(BSD licensed) project which is meant to compliment other project, such
as NumPy and SciPy, as a necessary package in the computational nuclear
engineer's toolkit. It is meant to play nicely with existing, industry
standard nuclear engineering tools. The goal of PyNE is to be both fast
and useful. As such, this is only the begging!

Release highlights:

- Support for many I/O routines.
- Nuclear data interface.
- C/C++ library which may be linked against independent of Python.
- Cython wrappers for C++ standard library containers.

Please visit our website for more information: http://pyne.github.com/

PyNE requires Python 2.7, NumPy 1.5+, PyTables 2.1+.

New features
============

Nuclide Naming in ``pyne.nucname``
----------------------------------
This module may be used to convert between various nuclide naming schemes.
Currently the following naming conventions are supported: zzaaam, human
readable names, MCNP, Serpent, NIST, and CINDER. This module is
implemented in C.

Basic Nuclear Data via ``pyne.data``
------------------------------------
This aims to provide quick access to very high fidelity nuclear data.
Usually
values are taken from the nuc_data.h5 library which is generated with the
new
``nuc_data_make`` utility at install. Current data includes atomic masses,
decay data, neutron scattering lengths, and simple cross section data.
63-group
neutron cross sections, photon cross sections, and fission product yields
are
also added when CINDER is available. This module is implemented in C.

Material Class in ``pyne.material``
-----------------------------------
Materials are the primary container for radionuclides throughout PyNE. They
map
nuclides to mass weights, though they contain methods for converting
to/from
atom fractions as well. In many ways they take inspiration from numpy
arrays
and python dictionaries. Materials are implemented in C++ and support both
text
and HDF5 I/O.

CCCC Formats in ``pyne.cccc``
-----------------------------
The CCCC module contains a number of classes for reading various cross
section,
flux, geometry, and data files with specifications given by the Committee
for
Computer Code Coordination. The following types of files can be read using
classes from this module: ISOTXS, DLAYXS, BRKOXS, RTFLUX, ATFLUX, RZFLUX,
MATXS,
and SPECTR.

ACE Cross Sections in ``pyne.ace``
----------------------------------
This module is for reading ACE-format cross sections. ACE stands for "A
Compact
ENDF" format and originated from work on MCNP. It is used in a number of
other
Monte Carlo particle transport codes.

Cross Section Interface via ``pyne.xs``
---------------------------------------
This is a top-level interface for computing (and caching) multigroup
neutron
cross sections. These cross sections will be computed from a variety of
available data sources (stored in nuc_data.h5). In order of preference:

1. CINDER 63-group cross sections,
2. A two-point fast/thermal interpolation (using 'simple_xs' data from
KAERI),
3. or physical models implemented in this sub-package.

In the future, this package will support generating multigroup cross
sections
from user-specified pointwise data sources (such as ENDF or ACE files).

ORIGEN 2.2 Support in ``pyne.origen22``
---------------------------------------
This provides an interface for reading, writing, and merging certain ORIGEN
2.2
input and output files. Specifically, tapes 4, 5, 6, and 9 are supported.

Serpent Support in ``pyne.serpent``
-----------------------------------
Serpent is a continuous energy Monte Carlo reactor physics code. Pyne
contains
support for reading in Serpent's three types of output files: res, dep, and
det.
These are all in Matlab's ``*.m`` format and are read in as Python
dictionaries
of numpy arrays and Materials. They may be optionally written out to
corresponding ``*.py`` files and imported later.

C++ Standard Library Converters in ``pyne.stlconverters``
---------------------------------------------------------
This module contains wrapper classes for commonly used containers in the
C++
standard library. This module is largely used by PyNE under the covers, in
Cython and elsewhere. However, these classes are of more general interest
so
feel free to use them in your own code as well. Currently implemented are
SetInt, SetStr, MapStrInt, MapIntStr, MapIntDouble, and MapIntComplex.

Nuclear Data Generation in ``pyne.dbgen``
-----------------------------------------
Pyne provides an easy-to-use, repeatable aggregation utility for nuclear
data.
This command line utility is called ``nuc_data_make`` builds and installs
an HDF5
file named ``nuc_data.h5`` to the current PyNE install. Nuclear data is
gathered
from a variety of sources, including the web and the data files for other
programs
installed on your system (such as MCNP).

Authors
=======
This release contains code written by the following people (in alphabetical
order):

* Christopher Dembia
* Robert Flanagan
* Paul Romano
* Anthony Scopatz
* Paul Wilson

Additionally, we would like to thank the following people for their
inspiration, guidance, and testing:

* Katy Huff
* Seth Johnson
* Joshua Peterson
* Rachel Slaybaugh
* Nick Touran
* Morgan White
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