Neutrino beams: production models and experimental data

The predictions of meson production by 450 GeV/c protons on Be using the {\sl GEANT-FLUKA} and {\sl FLUKA} standalone hadronic generators are compared with available experimental measurements. The comparison enlightens the improvements of the present standalone code {\sl FLUKA} with respect to the 1992 version, which is the hadronic generator model embedded into {\sl GEANT-FLUKA}. A complete simulation of the SPS neutrino beam line at CERN showed significant variations on the intensity and composition of the neutrino beam when {\sl FLUKA} instead of the {\sl GEANT-FLUKA} package is used to simulate particle production in the Be target.