Covariances of fission-integral measurements at the NBS /sup 252/Cf and ISNF facilities and at the ORNL-PCA facility

Integral measurements together with accompanying uncertainty estimates have been used for the past fifteen years in cross section adjustments. As the field of cross section adjustment came of age, the crude uncertainty estimates were replaced - only in principle, initially - by a quantitative cross section uncertainty covariance description and by uncertainty correlations of integral experiments. There is current interest in the fission reaction rate ratio measurements in the NBS standard neutron fields by people involved in fast reactor cross sections. Also those in the LWR pressure vessel surveillance dosimetry program are interested in these measurements and in similar measurements performed in the Oak Ridge Pool Critical Assembly (PCA). A careful re-examination of uncertainty analysis is presented.