Development of Critical-Mass Measurement Techniques at RFNC-VNIITF

The experience of RFNC-VNIITF for the period since 1970 in the field of critical mass measurements is generalized and systematized. The specific features of setting up the benchmark-type critical mass experiments at the RFNC-VNIITF FKBN (FKBN-M, FKBN-2) bench for critical assemblies are considered. A brief description of a number of critical experiments performed at different time at the FKBN bench with spherical and cylindrical assemblies of uranium and plutonium metals is given. The issues of necessity and ways of preserving the primary experimental information for critical assemblies are discussed.