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Preservation of Integral Experiments Data Needs, Methods,
Formats
Numerous essential experiments concerned
with nuclear
energy and technology have been carried out during the last several
decades
in different research laboratories. This has required a large
investment
in terms of infrastructure, expertise and cost. Results from these
experiments
remain of great value today as they provide the basis for recording,
development
and validation methods and represent a significant collection of data
for
past, present and future research. Data reports also document
measurement
methods and techniques that have been developed over the years. It is
also
unlikely that any of these experiments will be repeated again in the
future.
At present, the general consensus is that there is an urgent need to
preserve
integral experiments data including separate or special effects data
for
nuclear energy and technology applications and the knowledge and
competence
contained therein. In fact, several experimental facilities have been
or
are in the process of being phased out. Key experts are retiring or
leaving
the field, the electronic media on which some information is stored is
based on obsolete or obsolescent technology that may soon render the
information
unrecoverable (some of it is already lost).
The NEA Nuclear Science Committee, in close
collaboration
with the Data Bank, has already started to preserve data from integral
experiments in different application areas of nuclear energy. The data
are stored in databases and are used in methods, data and code
validation
exercises. The areas presently covered are:
- radiation shielding experiments
(fission, fusion,
accelerators): SINBAD;
- criticality experiments with
extension
to sub-critical
systems: ICSBEP;
- nuclear fuel performance/behaviour
experiments: IFPE;
- integral test facility and
separate
effects tests
validation matrix: CCVM.
- reactor physics experiments
evaluation IRPhE.
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