Topic summary
Induced fission
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Nuclear fission.
Nuclear reaction
During induced fission, a compound system is formed after an incident particle fuses with a target. The resultant excitation energy may be sufficient to emit neutrons, or gamma-rays, and nuclear scission. Fission into two fragments is called binary fission, and is the most common nuclear reaction. Occurring least frequently is ternary fission, in which a third particle is emitted. This third particle is commonly an α particle. Since in nuclear fission, the nucleus emits more neutrons than the one it absorbs, a chain reaction is possible.