Influence of the Correlations of Experimental Uncertainties on Criticality Prediction

The necessity of accounting for the correlation of experimental uncertainties when determining calculational uncertainty in criticality predictions is demonstrated in this paper. An example of constructing the correlation matrix for the experimental uncertainties of the experiments with highly enriched uranium solutions performed and evaluated at the Institute of Physics and Power Engineering, Russian Federation, is presented. A conclusion is drawn with regard to the significant influence of the correlations on the average calculation-experiment deviation and the deviation uncertainty.