International handbook of evaluated criticality safety benchmark experiments

The primary purpose of the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) Working Group is to compile critical and subcritical benchmark experiment data into a standardised format that allows criticality safety analysts to easily use the data to validate calculation tools and cross-section libraries. ICSBEP work includes: - Identifying a comprehensive set of critical benchmark data and, to the extent possible, verify the data by reviewing original and subsequently revised documentation, and by talking with the experimenters or individuals who are familiar with the experimenters or the experimental facility; - Evaluating the data and quantify overall uncertainties through various types of sensitivity analysis; - Compiling the data into a standardised format; - Performing calculations of each experiment with standard criticality safety codes; - Formally documenting the work into a single source of verified benchmark critical data. The work of the ICSBEP is documented as an International Handbook of Evaluated Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiments (ICSBEP Handbook). Currently, the handbook spans nearly 67,000 pages and contains 561 evaluations representing 4839 critical, near-critical, or subcritical configurations, 24 criticality alarm placement/shielding configurations with multiple dose points for each, and 207 configurations that have been categorised as fundamental physics measurements that are relevant to criticality safety applications. The handbook is intended for use by criticality safety analysts to perform necessary validations of their calculational techniques and is expected to be a valuable tool for decades to come. The ICSBEP Handbook is produced in electronic format (pdf files) where the experiments are grouped into evaluations and categorised by: fissile media (plutonium, highly enriched uranium, intermediate and mixed enrichment uranium, low enriched uranium, uranium-233, mixed plutonium-uranium and special isotope systems); physical form of the fissile material (metal, compound, solution and miscellaneous systems); and neutron energy range where the majority of the fissions occur (fast, intermediate, thermal and mixed spectra systems). The Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (CSBEP) was initiated in 1992 by the US Department of Energy under the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL). In 1995, the CSBEP became an official activity of the NEA Nuclear Science Committee at which time the name was changed to the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP). The DVD may be obtained free of charge by completing an online order form at: https://www.oecd-nea.org/science/wpncs/icsbep/order.html