Consistency Among the Results of the ASPIS Iron88, PCA Replica, and PCA ORNL Benchmark Experiments

Iron is an essential element in the construction materials for fission and fusion reactors. Due to its complexity, the evaluation of iron cross sections continues to represent a challenge for the international nuclear data community. A comprehensive validation of any new nuclear data evaluation (and the computational procedure) against experimental benchmarks is therefore needed. The shielding benchmark database SINBAD includes relatively numerous experiments with iron as a shielding material; altogether, 27 benchmarks and several more are known but have not yet been evaluated in the database. However, in order to use the benchmark information with confidence and to rely on the predictions based on integral benchmark calculations, it is crucial to verify the quality and accuracy of the measurements themselves, as well as the (completeness of) available experimental information. This is done in the scope of the benchmark evaluation process. A further check of the reliability of the experimental information can be achieved by intercomparing the results of similar types of benchmark experiments and checking the consistency among them.