Synthesis on the validation of the CRISTAL V0 package

CRISTAL V0.1, a French calculation package for criticality-safety studies, has been developed and validated as part of a joint project between IRSN, CEA and COGEMA. This package includes two calculation routes: on the one hand, the 'standard route' dealing with the nuclear data library CEA93 (derived from JEF2.2 evaluation), the APOLLO2 cell code and the Monte Carlo MORET4 code, and, on the other hand, the 'reference route' using the Monte Carlo TRIPOLI4 code with a JEF2.2 continuous-energy cross-section library. Last years, an extensive validation work has been performed by CEA and IRSN using a large experimental database (more than 500 critical experiments) taking into account most of the different operations encountered in the nuclear fuel cycle. In this framework, a significant effort has been devoted to provide CRISTAL's users a comprehensive and useful synthesis of the different validation studies. (author)