Speaker
Description
The status of the two neutronics international benchmark projects sanctioned by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Nuclear Energy Agency (OECD NEA), the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) and the International Reactor Physics Experiment Evaluation Project (IRPhEP), was last directly discussed with the international nuclear data community at the 14th International Conference on Nuclear Data for Science and Technology (ND2019) in Beijing, China. The primary purpose of the ICSBEP and IRPhEP is to provide extensively peer-reviewed integral benchmark experiment data to the international nuclear community to support validation and testing of nuclear data and models. Users of the handbooks are found throughout the nuclear data, reactor physics, criticality safety, and mathematics/computation communities. The contents of these handbooks support validation of analytical methodologies utilized in reactor physics, fuel cycle characterization, nuclear facility safety analysis and design, advanced modelling and simulation, training, education, and nuclear data.
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Since ND2019, the quantity of available integral benchmark data to support nuclear data testing has increased. The 2021 edition of the \textit{International Handbook of Evaluated Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiments} (ICSBEP Handbook) now contains 587 evaluations with benchmark specifications for 5,098 critical, near-critical, or subcritical configurations, 45 criticality alarm placement/shielding configuration with multiple dose points apiece (contained within 7 evaluations), and 237 configurations that have been categorized as fundamental physics measurements that are relevant to criticality safety applications (contained within 10 evaluations). An additional 838 configurations deemed unacceptable to support criticality safety are also preserved within the handbook.
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The 2021 edition of the \textit{International Handbook of Evaluated Reactor Physics Benchmark Experiments} (IRPhEP Handbook) contains data from 169 different experimental series that were performed at 57 unique nuclear facilities. Currently 165 of the 169 evaluations are published as approved benchmarks with the remaining four evaluations published as draft benchmarks only. Measurements found in the IRPhEP Handbook include criticality, buckling and extrapolation length, spectral characteristics, reactivity effects, reactivity coefficients, kinetics, reaction-rate distributions, power distributions, isotopic compositions, and/or other miscellaneous types of measurements for various types of reactor systems.
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A total of 28 countries have contributed to the past and continued success of these projects as benchmark evaluations, technical reviews, and experimental data using their own time and resources: 26 to the ICSBEP and 25 to the IRPhEP. Contributing countries include the following: Argentina, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, People's Republic of China, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Poland, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States of America.
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Key contributions to the handbooks over the past three years can only be highlighted within this paper. Full technical details and benchmark experiment descriptions can be located within the benchmark reports distributed within recent editions of the handbooks. Evaluations are periodically updated as errors are identified, additional evaluated data are incorporated, or clarifications are provided based upon handbook-user feedback. Users of the handbooks are strongly encouraged to utilize the Database for the International Handbook of Evaluated Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiments (DICE) and the IRPhEP Database and Analysis Tool (IDAT) to verify the latest benchmark evaluation versions contained within their respective handbooks.
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