The 2019 Edition of the ICSBEP Handbook
Over the past several decades, innumerable experiments have been performed worldwide to support criticality safety. These experiments represent significant investment in infrastructure, expertise, and cost, and are valuable resources of data for present and future research. These valuable assets provide the basis for recording, development, and validation of methods and nuclear data [1]. If the experimental data are lost, the high cost to repeat many of these measurements would likely be prohibitive. The International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) was established to: 1. Identify a comprehensive set of critical benchmark data and, to the extent possible, verify the data; 2. Evaluate the data and quantify overall uncertainties through various types of sensitivity analyses; 3. Compile the data into a standardized format; 4. Perform calculations of each experiment with standard criticality safety codes; and 5. Formally document the work into a single source of verified benchmark critical data. Annually, contributors from around the world continue to collaborate in the evaluation and review of select benchmark experiments for inclusion in the International Handbook of Evaluated Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiments (ICSBEP Handbook) [2]. Further information regarding the ICSBEP, including highlighted criticality safety benchmark evaluations, can be found in the September and October 2003 editions of Nuclear Science and Engineering [3]. New and recently revised evaluations have been prepared for inclusion in the 2019 edition of the ICSBEP Handbook.