Testing of ²³³U Evaluations With Criticality Benchmarks

To validate and improve the quality of the complete set of evaluated nuclear reaction data for ²³³U, criticality benchmarks with fast, epithermal and thermal spectra from ICSBEP handbook were selected to test ²³³U evaluations from CENDL-3.1, ENDF/B-Ⅶ.0, JENDL-3.3 and JENDL-4.0. The effective multiplication factors k_eff of selected benchmarks were calculated with the Monte Carlo code MCNP5 and compared with the benchmark values. The results were analyzed with trend against energy spectrum index and sensitivity analysis. In present validation, the underestimation of k_eff for benchmarks with thermal, epithermal or some of fast spectra is the main problem existed in the tested evaluations. From the view of thermal reactors design, the ²³³U evaluation from ENDF/B-Ⅶ.0 shows better performance than other file tested, but still overestimates the contribution of capture reaction in resonance region.