International criticality safety benchmark evaluation

ICSBEP visual

The NEA International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) Handbook contains criticality safety benchmark specifications that have been derived from experiments performed at various critical facilities around the world. These 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.

The 2020 edition of the ICSBEP handbook presents evaluated criticality safety benchmark data in nine volumes that span over 70 000 pages. The handbook contains 582 evaluations with benchmark specifications for 5 053 critical, near-critical or subcritical configurations, 45 criticality alarm placement/shielding configurations with multiple dose points for each, and 237 configurations that have been categorised as fundamental physics measurements that are relevant to criticality safety applications.

New to the handbook in this edition are the first experiments from the Thermal/Epithermal eXperiments (TEX) programme that were performed at the National Critical Experiments Research Center (NCERC) in the United States.

Together with the NEA International Handbook of Evaluated Reactor Physics Benchmark Experiments (IRPhE), the ICSBEP handbook has been recognised as an international standard for the conversion of raw experimental data into high-fidelity benchmarks. Over the past decades, both handbooks have enabled the nuclear community to enhance the validation of basic nuclear data and simulation tools. Together they serve as a gold standard for other databases such as the Spent Fuel Isotopic Composition (SFCOMPO) and Shielding Integral Benchmark Archive and Database (SINBAD), co-sponsored by the NEA and the Radiation Safety Information Computational Center (RSICC).

The 2020 edition of the ICSBEP handbook is currently available by download only and physical DVDs will be available in February 2020. Requests to obtain the DVD or online access should be made by completing the online Handbook Request Form.

See also