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Why Lady Godiva Should be Replaced as the Default Validation Experiment for U-235 Nuclear Data

Conference ·
OSTI ID:1897676

For the past seven decades the Lady Godiva benchmark (HEU-MET-FAST-001) has been the primary experiment used for 235U nuclear data validation. The papers associated with large nuclear data library releases such as ENDF/B-VII.1 and ENDF/B-VIII.0 refer to it frequently. The reasons why HEU-MET-FAST-001 has been used as the primary validation experiment for 235U nuclear data validation will be discussed in the following section. However, as discussed among the benchmark community, the standards associated with International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) evaluations have changed throughout time; this is subject of the OECD/NEA WPEC (Working Party on Nuclear Criticality Safety) Subgroup 8. HEU-MET-FAST-001 is an older benchmark (issued during the inaugural year of ICSBEP in 1996 with only minor revisions occurring since then) and (along with many of the other benchmarks from this era) does not meet the standards for a modern benchmark. This work explores why HEU-MET-FAST-001 is useful for 235U nuclear data validation and discusses other alternative validation experiments.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP); USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program
DOE Contract Number:
89233218CNA000001
OSTI ID:
1897676
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-22-26504
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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