Abstract An updated version of the look-up table for critical heat flux (CHF) has been developed jointly by AECL Research (Canada) and IPPE (Obninsk, Russia). It is based on an extensive data base of CHF values obtained in tubes with a vertical upward flow of steam-water mixture. While the data base covers a wide range of flow conditions, the look-up table is designed to provide CHF values for 8 mm tubes at discrete values of pressure, mass flux and dryout quality covering the ranges 0.1 to 20.0 MPa. 0.0 to 8.0 Mg m 2 s 1 and −0.5 to +1.0 respectively. Linear interpolation is used to determine the CHF for conditions between the tabulated values, and an empirical correction factor is introduced to extend this CHF table to tubes of diameter values other than 8 mm. Compared against the combined AECL-IPPE world data bank (consisting of 22 946 data points after excluding duplicate data and obviously erroneous data), the 1995 look-up table predicts the data with overall average and root-mean-square errors of 0.69% and 7.82% respectively. An assessment of various CHF tables and several empirical correlations shows that the 1995 table consistently provides the best prediction accuracy and is applicable to the widest range of conditions.