NEA Mandates and Structures

Technical Review Group for the Shielding Integral Benchmark Archive and Database (SINBADTRG)

Mandate (Document reference):

• The NSC Working Party on Scientific Issues of Reactor Systems (WPRS): Proposal for Prioritisation and Restructuring, NEA/NSC/WPRS/DOC(2020)19
• Mandate of the WPRS Expert Group on Physics of Reactor Systems (EGPRS), NEA/NSC/WPRS/DOC(2021)1
• Summary Record of the 22^nd Meeting of the Working Party on Scientific Issues and Uncertainty Analysis of Reactor Systems (WPRS) held on 21 February 2025 (forthcoming)
• Summary Record of the 36^th Meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee (NSC) held on 19-21 May 2025 (forthcoming)
• Mandate of the Technical Review Group for the Shielding Integral Benchmark Archive and Database (SINBADTRG) [NEA/SEN/NSC/WPRS(2025)1]

Mandate (Document extract):

Extract of document NEA/SEN/NSC/WPRS(2025)1

Mandate

Background

The SINBAD project started in the early 1990’s as a collaboration between the NEA and the Radiation Safety Information Computational Center (RSICC) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) with the goal to preserve the information on the performed radiation shielding benchmarks and to make them available in a standardised form to the international community.

During its meeting held on 25 March 2020, the Nuclear Science Committee (NSC) Bureau emphasised the need to enhance SINBAD by establishing a long-term activity on evaluation of integral experiments available in SINBAD and, with support of the NEA Data Bank, developing of a relational database. This need was considered during the restructuring of the Working Party on Scientific Issues of Reactor Systems, and in 2021 the WPRS Expert Group on Physics of Reactor Systems was assigned to establish a Task Force on SINBAD to monitor gaps and steer development SINBAD in collaboration with the United States’ Radiation Safety Information Computational Centre.

The SINBAD Task Force reestablished a stable community of experts to foster the SINBAD development. The Task Force designed a new maintenance process for SINBAD, migrated all SINBAD content to a GitLab-based repository system, and changed the distribution mechanism by giving all SINBAD users access to the dynamic content of the NEA GitLab system instead of distributing static versions.

Given the successful work of the Task Force, the WPRS decided during its annual meeting on 21 February 2025 to propose a promotion of the SINBAD Task Force to a mandated Technical Review Group (TRG) supervised by the WPRS to empower the continuation of this highly impactful activity within the programme of work of the Nuclear Science Committee and to guarantee continued SINBAD oversight.

The WPRS proposal to form a SINBAD Technical Review Group (SINBADTRG) was supported by the NSC during its 36^th annual meeting from 19-21 May 2025.

Under the guidance of the WPRS, the SINBADTRG will conduct activities in the following main areas:

• Preservation of experimental data: One of the main objectives of the SINBADTRG is to ensure the preservation of existing shielding and fixed source experimental data and to continuously capture new data as it becomes available. It is important to capture and document the experimentalist’s knowledge of the conditions and configurations of the measurement while those involved with the measurements are available to provide such information.
• Preservation of numerical intercomparison: Provide a platform to share numerical intercomparison exercises to facilitate code-to-code comparisons.
• Accessibility of data: Experimental and numerical intercomparison data are made accessible to SINBAD licensees, in the agreed upon standardised format, through the SINBAD database. As improvements are identified by the SINBADTRG, the database, its interface, and associated tools are adapted accordingly.
• Evaluation of experimental data: This significant and challenging objective seeks complete documentation of the measured data, including all relevant experimental configuration data, associated uncertainty data, and peer-reviewed assessment of these data. This review process is intended to vet the data for potential errors and identify how to handle missing data. The result is a benchmark evaluation suitable for verification and validation of nuclear data and radiation transport codes.
• Knowledge transfer: Guidance for the evaluation of experimental data in the SINBAD database is developed by the SINBADTRG. Similar guidelines have already been established and documented for the qualification of benchmark data by other NEA Technical Review Groups. The current formatting a guidance document, which was originally approved by the SINBAD TRG in 2019, will continually be updated and expanded as needed.

Scope

Under the direction of the Working Party on Scientific Issues and Uncertainty Analysis of Reactor Systems (WPRS) of the Nuclear Science Committee (NSC), the Technical Review Group for the Shielding Integral Benchmark Archive and Database (SINBADTRG) will review and evaluate the available measurements and numerical intercomparisons related to radiation shielding for reactors and nuclear fuel cycle facilities for nuclear fission and fusion technologies, and accelerator facilities, especially in NEA member countries.

Objectives

The SINBADTRG will:

• collect experimentally measured data such as particle fluxes and flux spectra (e.g. secondary particle production), reaction rates (e.g. breeding), and energy deposition (e.g. dose);
• collect detailed descriptions of the experimental geometries, materials, sources, detectors, uncertainties, and other information relevant for the evaluation of the measured data;
• draft and review evaluations of the experimental data to create new benchmark data that can be used for verification and validation of cross section data and radiation transport codes;
• analyse the content of the database coupled with user needs to maintain a list of needs for new experimental data or improved SINBAD evaluations;
• maintain numerical intercomparison exercises for the verification of radiation transport codes and facilitates code-to-code comparisons;
• collect and archive original reports relevant to data included in the SINBADTRG database and add supporting technical references that were used in the original development;
• provide technical advice in support of shielding and fixed source measurement activities in member countries and promote international collaboration to expand the accessibility of measurement and benchmark data;
• support the design of future experiments by identifying the minimum and desired requirements for characterisation for sources, detectors, materials, and geometric configurations and their associated uncertainties;
• maintain and enhance the SINBAD database, in both its content and features, and investigates the addition of new relevant shielding and fixed source benchmark measurements; and
• maintain the quality standards of SINBAD by performing and documenting peer-reviewed evaluations the experimental data sets proposed as benchmarks to be included in the SINBAD database.

Working methods

The SINBADTRG reports to the WPRS and meets on average once per year in person or hybrid manner. Interim virtual meetings are organised as needed. The SINBADTRG supervises subgroups performing maintenance work on individual SINBAD entries.

The members of the SINBADTRG will interface with specialists in their own country and in other international communities to identify and obtain new data to be evaluated, included in the SINBAD TRG database, and made available to the SINBAD licensees.

Interactions

The SINBADTRG works closely with the WPRS and its bodies as well as with the NSC.

In particular, the SINBADTRG collaborates with other subsidiary bodies of the NSC developing and using databases of integral experiments, such as

• the Technical Review Group for the International Criticality Safety Benchmarks Evaluation Project (ICSBEPTRG),
• the International Reactor Physics Experiments Evaluation Project Technical Review Group (IRPhETRG),
• the Technical Review Group for the International Assay Data of Spent Nuclear Fuel Database (SFCOMPOTRG), and
• the Expert Group on Physics of Reactor Systems (EGPRS) that facilitates collaboration on development of radiation transport methods between NEA member countries.

Collaboration is also ensured with the following topics and bodies:

• on nuclear data through the Working Party on International Nuclear Data Evaluation Co-operation (WPEC) under the NSC; and the Joint Evaluated Fission and Fusion Nuclear Data Library Co-ordination Group (JEFF) under the Management Board for the Development, Application and Validation of Nuclear Data and Codes (MBDAV);
• the benchmark activities supported by the biannual workshops on Shielding aspects of Accelerators, Targets and Irradiation Facilities (SATIF);
• the preservation and dissemination of data through the NEA Databank under the auspices of the MBDAV;
• the Radiation Safety Information Computational Center (RSICC) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for licensing access to U.S. contributions for SINBAD.

Deliverables

The SINBADTRG will:

• collect, capture, format, and include new shielding and fixed source experiments and numerical intercomparisons in the SINBAD database.
• prepare, review, and publish evaluation reports in the agreed upon standardised format as part of the SINBAD database.
• collect supplementary data, including simulation input decks and results, related to evaluation reports and publish in the SINBAD database.
• foster a platform for sharing users’ results and validation studies and encourage users’ contributions.