Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Capable of undergoing fission.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Capable of undergoing nuclear fission; -- a property of certain isotopes of elements with heavy nuclei.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Capable of undergoing nuclear fission; fissile.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective capable of undergoing nuclear fission

Etymologies

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Examples

  • It is only the atoms of mass 235 which are fissionable, that is, from which energy is released.

    The Peacetime Applications of Atomic Energy 1955

  • Isotopes of uranium and plutonium which fission in a fast neutron environment are said to be "fissionable", as distinct from fissile.

    Plutonium 2009

  • Uranium 238 is not fissile; it is called "fissionable" because it sometimes splits when hit by a fast neutron.

    Scientific American 2009

  • "fissionable" is generally used in an engineering sense for those elements that undergo fission when struck by neutrons.

    Dissident Voice 2009

  • Unsuccessful, he placed funds in a Swiss bank for purchasing "loose nukes" or fissionable materials from individuals or "below the horizon" groups.

    Andrew J. Pierre: If Gaddafi Had the Bomb Andrew J. Pierre 2011

  • Unsuccessful, he placed funds in a Swiss bank for purchasing "loose nukes" or fissionable materials from individuals or "below the horizon" groups.

    Andrew J. Pierre: If Gaddafi Had the Bomb Andrew J. Pierre 2011

  • In the worst case, the melting fissionable material could concentrate to create a critical mass, with the risk of an explosion.

    Radiation Effects Vary Gautam Naik 2011

  • Unsuccessful, he placed funds in a Swiss bank for purchasing "loose nukes" or fissionable materials from individuals or "below the horizon" groups.

    Andrew J. Pierre: If Gaddafi Had the Bomb Andrew J. Pierre 2011

  • These problems are not impossible to overcome -- there are already designs that have been tested that produce minimal amounts of high-grade fissionable materials and that have numerous safety features that make a serious accident virtually impossible.

    Energy in 2050, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • Then we need to give the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty the finger, and reduce the amount of generated nuclear waste by a factor of 50 by reprocessing the fuel rods that are “spent” when they have only 98% of their fissionable material remaining.

    Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » In Search of Skepticism 2010

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