WPEC Subgroup 47 (SG47) - Use of Shielding Integral Benchmark Archive and Database for Nuclear Data Validation
Ongoing

The latest version of Shielding Integral Benchmark Archive and Database (SINBAD), distributed by the NEA and Radiation Safety Information Computational Center (RSICC), includes over 100 shielding benchmark experiments covering fission reactor shielding (48 benchmarks), fusion blanket neutronics (31), and accelerator shielding (23) applications.

Interest in using SINBAD shielding benchmarks was expressed by nuclear data communities in the scope of several WPEC subgroups, and within the Joint Evaluated Fission and Fusion (JEFF) and European Fusion File (EFF) projects. Progress in SINBAD compilations slowed down in recent years and a new kick-off of this activity would be beneficial to assess and respond to the expectations and needs of different nuclear data communities. Multiple challenges and objectives will be considered including to:

  • provide feedback on the existing database and contribute in this way to the quality review as started about 10 years ago at the NEA. The feedback would consist of developing and contributing input models for different transport codes, judging the completeness and consistency of the available benchmark information, identifying the missing or inconsistent data, in particular concerning the evaluation of the sources of experimental uncertainty. The quality review, which covers now about 50% of the SINBAD benchmarks, concentrates on the verification of the description of the experimental setup, the neutron source specifications, the detector characteristics, the geometry and precise material composition of the components. The main criteria for judging the quality of the experiment are its completeness and the consistency of the experimental information (on the geometry, materials, the procedure to derive data-unfolding, etc.), with a particular emphasis on the evaluation of the different sources of uncertainties, be it experimental, engineering and modelling
  • provide recommendations on the SINBAD evaluations based on the experience, needs and expectations of the nuclear data community
  • participate in establishing the priority list of relevant benchmarks according to the needs of the nuclear data community, in particular among new and more recent benchmarks; promote including the selected benchmarks in SINBAD; contribute the available sensitivity profiles to be included in the database
  • participate, in coordination with the EGRTS WPRS, in establishing the review group and organisation of pilot exercise of SINBAD evaluations. The recent evaluations of the FNG benchmarks which are underway in the scope of the Fusion for Energy (F4E) project of the European Commission represent good candidates to be used for pilot exercises.

WPEC Subgroup 47 (SG47) works in close coordination with other NEA activities such as WPRS Expert Group on Radiation Transport and Shielding (EGRTS), WPEC SG45, SG46, Collaborative International Evaluated Library Organisation (CIELO) Pilot Project and the JEFF project, where the work could be used to guide the evaluations. Feedback from these groups on the specific needs and the use of Shielding Integral Benchmark Archive and Database (SINBAD) data is expected. SINBAD evaluation work shall be tightly coordinated with the interest of SG46 on Efficient and Effective Use of Integral Experiments for Nuclear Data Validation. Past experience in integral benchmark evaluations from the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP), the International Reactor Physics Experiment Evaluation (IRPhE) Project and SINBAD will be valuable.

Activities
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results