| Some experts say the tremor has the hallmarks of a subcritical explosion that failed to achieve a sustained fission reaction, or perhaps only a fraction of the plutonium fissioned. |
| In an atomic bomb the chain reaction is designed to increase in intensity until much of the material has fissioned. |
| What is actually being split or fissioned is the nucleus, not the atom. |
| Nuclear reactors sustain a controlled chain reaction of fissioning atoms, in which neutrons released from atoms that have fissioned will go on to split other atoms. |
| The nuclear chain reaction is an example of nuclear fission, where a neutron being ejected from one fissioned atom will cause another atom to fission, ejecting more neutrons. |
| We will assume that once a seed has fissioned once, it continues to fission or effectively double in a time t 2, which is independent of the above distribution. |
