Word.ws English Dictionary

delayed criticality

delayed criticality noun: the point at which the prompt neutrons and delayed neutrons produced by a nuclear fission chain reaction, taken together, are just sufficient to sustain the chain reaction (the state of being delayed critical); in this state, changes in reaction power occur slowly, allowing the reaction to be controlled on human timescales, due to the relatively long time delay associated with the emission of the delayed neutrons necessary to maintain the chain reaction.

Noun

delayed criticality (usually uncountable, plural delayed criticalities)

  1. (usually, nuclear physics) The point at which the prompt neutrons and delayed neutrons produced by a nuclear fission chain reaction, taken together, are just sufficient to sustain the chain reaction (the state of being delayed critical); in this state, changes in reaction power occur slowly, allowing the reaction to be controlled on human timescales, due to the relatively long time delay associated with the emission of the delayed neutrons necessary to maintain the chain reaction.
    • Although nearly all neutrons produced by fission are emitted as soon as the atom splits (within 10^-14 sec or so), a very small proportion of neutrons (0.65% for U-235, 0.25% for Pu-239) are emitted by fission fragments with delays of up to a few minutes. In delayed criticality these neutrons are...2019 March 13, Carey Sublette, “4.1 Elements of Fission Weapon Design”, in Nuclear Weapon Archive, archived from the original on 03 Mar 2021, 4.1.4 History of a Fission Explosion

Forms of delayed criticality

pluraldelayed criticalities

Questions about delayed criticality

What does delayed criticality mean?
Delayed criticality means the point at which the prompt neutrons and delayed neutrons produced by a nuclear fission chain reaction, taken together, are just sufficient to sustain the chain reaction (the state of being delayed critical); in this state, changes in reaction power occur slowly, allowing the reaction to be controlled on human timescales, due to the relatively long time delay associated with the emission of the delayed neutrons necessary to maintain the chain reaction.
What part of speech is delayed criticality?
Delayed criticality is a noun.
What is the plural of delayed criticality?
The plural of delayed criticality is delayed criticalities.

Words near delayed criticality in the dictionary

  1. delayal
  2. delayals
  3. delayed
  4. delayed critical
  5. delayed criticalities
  6. delayed criticality
  7. delayed ejaculation
  8. delayed miscarriage
  9. delayed miscarriages
  10. delayed neutron
  11. delayed neutrons

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: delayed criticality (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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