AMERATEST - A Contribution to the JEFF-3 File Testing and Initial Benchmarking

Lessons drawn from the JEF-2.2 library validation and statistical adjustment studies make it possible to envisage an efficient benchmarking of the forthcoming JEFF-3.0 file. To this aim, the AMERATEST system has been developed to easily test new nuclear data evaluations on a limited but consistent set of integral data. It consists of the following elements: the fast reactor physics code ERANOS; a generalized least-squares code AMERE; and ERATEST, an application library containing the evaluation to be tested as well as adjusted data. Trends on uranium, plutonium, structural materials and sodium in the fast energy range can be obtained with such a system. In this paper, we briefly describe the integral database and the main elements of the AMERATEST system. Validation tests are presented and analyzed.