The International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) was initiated in October of 1992 by Dae Chung, Director of the Department of Energy Defense Programs Systems Engineering Division. The project is managed through Idaho National Laboratory (INL), and involves nationally known criticality safety experts from Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Savannah River National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 Plant, Hanford, Argonne National Laboratory, Rocky Flat Plant, Sandia National Laboratory, and Bettis Laboratory. The U.S. map and organization chart shows the participating laboratories in the United States.

An International Criticality Safety Data Exchange component was added to the project during 1994. Representatives from the United Kingdom, France, Japan, the Russian Federation, Hungary, Korea, Slovenia, Serbia, Kazakhstan, Spain, Israel, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Poland, India, Canada, China, and Sweden are now participating on the project. South Africa, Germany, Argentina, and Australia have been invited to participate. The international participants are shown on the international map and organization chart. The ICSBEP is an official activity of the OECD-NEA, Working Party on Nuclear Criticality Safety.

The purpose of the ICSBEP is to:

1. Identify a comprehensive set of critical benchmark data and, to the extent possible, verify the data by reviewing original and subsequently revised documentation, and by talking with the experimenters or individuals who are familiar with the experimenters or the experimental facility.
2. Evaluate the data and quantify overall uncertainties through various types of sensitivity analysis.
3. Compile the data into a standardized format.
4. Perform calculations of each experiment with standard criticality safety codes.
5. Formally document the work into a single source of verified benchmark critical data.

The work of the ICSBEP is documented as an International Handbook of Evaluated Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiments. Currently, the handbook spans over 42,000 pages and contains 464 evaluations representing 4092 critical, near-critical, or subcritical configurations, 21 criticality alarm placement/shielding configurations with multiple dose points for each, and 46 configurations that have been categorized as fundamental physics measurements that are relevant to criticality safety applications. The handbook is intended for use by criticality safety analysts to perform necessary validations of their calculational techniques and is expected to be a valuable tool for decades to come. The Handbook is currently in use in 60 countries.

The ICSBEP Handbook is available both on DVD and the Internet. You may request a DVD by completing the DVD Request Form. Access to the Handbook on the Internet requires a password. You may request a password by completing the Password Request Form.

A "Database for the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project" (DICE) is included on the DVD version of the Handbook. DICE is a tool intended to make more efficient use of the Handbook and will enable users to more easily identify information in the Handbook that meets their needs. Basically, DICE is a relational database with a user interface to query the database. DICE accomplishes two main objectives:

1. Provide a summary description of each experimental configuration, where the main characteristics of the experiments are displayed in a uniform format.
2. Allow users to search the handbook for experimental configurations that satisfy their unique input criteria (much more than a word search).

DICE is still in the development phase and is subject to data entry errors and omissions. The International Handbook remains the primary source of criticality safety benchmark data.