20 Years of SINBAD (Shielding Integral Benchmark Archive and Database)

Abstract

The SINBAD project started in the early 1990’s as a collaboration between the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Nuclear Energy Agency Data Bank (OECD/NEADB) 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 make them available in a standardised form to the international community. The SINBAD database comprises now 100 shielding benchmarks, covering fission reactor shielding, fusion blanket neutronics, and accelerator shielding. A thorough revision of the SINBAD benchmark experiments was undertaken recently in order to verify the completeness and consistency of the benchmark information, in particular concerning the evaluation of the experimental sources of uncertainty. New improved computer code models were prepared. This review process is expected to provide users with an easier choice and help them make better use of the experimental information. The OECD NEA Working Party on Scientific Issues of Reactor Systems (WPRS) Expert Group on Radiation Transport and Shielding (EGRTS) was started in 2011 with the mandate among others, to monitor, steer and support the continued development of the SINBAD database. SINBAD is available from RSICC and from the NEA Data Bank.