Thompson et al. provide a review of activities at the National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC). NCERC is one of few critical experiment facilities remaining in the United States and regularly performs subcritical, critical and supercritical experiments.

Two papers describe measurement techniques and uncertainties associated with measured data. Skifton describes the superposition of both inhomogeneity and drift of thermocouple elements occurring in high-temperature irradiation-resistant thermocouples. Leclaire and Bess describe two methods to deal with the assessment of the rod positioning uncertainties in a reactor fuel lattice.

Two papers describe fuel performance measurements. Keiser et al. provides the results of post irradiation examination of a TRIGA fuel element with a high assay low-enrichment uranium-zirconium hydride fuel. Paaren et al. present the results of BISON of metallic fuel against experimental measurements within two fuel experiment databases.

Gutowska et al. present selected data from experiments performed to fill data gaps in the characteristics pressurized and depressurized conduction cooldown transients.

In Iwamoto et al. the validation of the Particle and Heavy Ion Transport System (PHITS) as applied to neutron-shielding experiments for fusion is described. Five sets of measurements with different shielding materials were simulated with PHITS and were found to have acceptable agreement.

Bostelmann et al. describe an assessment of nuclear data used in analysis of advanced reactor concepts for which operating history is unavailable, while (van der Marck and Koning) make the case for use of fission product cross section measurements performed at the STEK facility.

Two review papers describe international benchmarking activities that are resources for advanced reactor modeling. Bess et al. describe two benchmark programs: the International Reactor Physics Experiment Evaluation (IRPhE) Project and the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP). Bess et al. expands on benchmark activities sponsored by the NEA, describing several international benchmark activities.

The Research Topic entitled Benchmark Experiments, Development and Needs in Support of Advanced Reactor Design provides a broad set of research results emphasizing the need for reactor physics benchmarks to support the next-generation of advanced reactors. This Research Topic includes papers on experimental facilities, measurement techniques, fuel performance, thermal hydraulics, shielding, nuclear data, all related to advanced reactor designs, combined with papers describing international efforts to develop Research Topic of benchmarks for reactor physics, criticality safety, fuel performance, spent fuel characterization, thermal hydraulics, shielding and multi-physics computational methods.