NEA-1486 ICSBEP2022-2023-HB.

ICSBEP2022-23-HANDBOOK.

The ICSBEP Handbook is available on DVD and Online. To obtain the access to either the DVD or the Online version, you must submit your request using the following link: https://www.oecd-nea.org/jcms/pl_20291/international-criticality-safety-benchmark-evaluation-project-icsbep-handbook

The Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (CSBEP) was initiated in 1992 by the United States Department of Energy. The project quickly became an international effort as scientists from other interested countries became involved. The International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) became an official activity of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) in 1995.

This handbook contains criticality safety benchmark specifications that have been derived from experiments performed at critical facilities around the world. The benchmark specifications are intended for use by criticality safety engineers to validate calculation techniques used to establish minimum subcritical margins for operations with fissile material and to determine criticality alarm requirements and placement. Many of the specifications are also useful for nuclear data testing. Example calculations are presented; however, these do not constitute a validation of the codes or cross-section data.

The evaluated criticality safety benchmark data in the 2022/2023 edition are presented in nine volumes. These volumes span over 80 000 pages and contain 598 evaluations with benchmark specifications for 5159 critical, near-critical or subcritical configurations, 49 criticality alarm placement/shielding configurations with multiple dose points for each, and 238 configurations which have been categorised as fundamental physics measurements that are relevant to criticality safety applications.

New to the handbook are one benchmark for fundamental physics, three criticality alarm placement shielding benchmarks, and nine critical, near-critical or subcritical benchmarks. Among them, the Molybdenum-sleeve experiments in a UO2 fuel lattice performed at Sandia National Laboratory, pictured on the front cover.

The 2022/2023 edition is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1787/110ba6fc-en

Experiments that are found unacceptable for use as criticality safety benchmark experiments are discussed in these evaluations; however, benchmark specifications are not derived for such experiments (in some cases, models are provided in an appendix). Approximately 838 experimental configurations are categorised as unacceptable for use as criticality safety benchmark experiments. Additional evaluations are in progress and will be added to this document periodically. The document is organised in a manner that allows easy inclusion of additional evaluations as they become available.

Catherine Percher

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Livermore CA 94550

USA

percher1 (at) llnl.gov

William J. Marshall

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Oak Ridge TN 37831-6170

USA

Marshallwj (at) ornl.gov

Tatiana Ivanova

OECD Nuclear Energy Agency

Division of Nuclear Science and Education

46, quai Alphonse Le Gallo

92100 Boulogne-Billancourt

France

cps-icsbep (at) oecd-nea.org

This handbook was prepared by a technical review group that benefited from the input of experienced criticality safety personnel from various countries, which have included over the years Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Czechia, France, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Poland, the Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. The handbook includes the project organisation and a list of participants by order in which countries joined the ICSBEP.