THE MUSE EXPERIMENTS FOR SUB-CRITICAL NEUTRONICS VALIDATION AND PROPOSAL FOR A COMPUTER BENCHMARK ON SIMULATION OF MASURCA CRITICAL AND SUB-CRITICAL EXPERIMENTS

Accelerator driven systems (ADS) are being explored in France in the frame of the research programme on radioactive waste management options. Besides studies aimed to clarify the motivations for ADS, a significant programme has been started to validate experimentally the main physics principles of these systems. This experimental programme was initiated at CEA-Cadarache in 1995, with the sponsorship of EdF and Framatome. Since 1997, the CNRS has joined the programme, which is now a common CEA-CNRS-EdF-Framatome programme, open to external partners, in particular since October 2000 the European Community in the frame of the 5th FW Programme.