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, binary fission, 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.
Binary fission may produce any of the fission products, at 95±15 and 135±15 daltons. However, the binary process happens merely because it is the most probable. In anywhere from two to four fissions per 1000 in a nuclear reactor, ternary fission can produce three positively charged fragments (plus neutrons) and the smallest of these may range from so small a charge and mass as a proton (Z = 1), to as large a fragment as argon (Z = 18). The most common small fragments, however, are composed of 90% helium-4 nuclei with more energy than alpha particles from alpha decay (so-called "long range alphas" at ~16 megaelectronvolts (MeV)), plus helium-6 nuclei, and tritons (the nuclei of tritium). Though less common than binary fission, it still produces significant helium-4 and tritium gas buildup in the fuel rods of modern nuclear reactors.
Bohr and Wheeler used their liquid drop model, the packing fraction curve of Arthur Jeffrey Dempster, and Eugene Feenbergs estimates of nucleus radius and surface tension, to estimate the mass differences of parent and daughters in fission. They then equated this mass difference to energy using Einsteins mass-energy equivalence formula. The stimulation of the nucleus after neutron bombardment was analogous to the vibrations of a liquid drop, with surface tension and the Coulomb force in opposition. Plotting the sum of these two energies as a function of elongated shape, they determined the resultant energy surface had a saddle shape. The saddle provided an energy barrier called the critical energy barrier. Energy of about 6 MeV provided by the incident neutron was necessary to overcome this barrier and cause the nucleus to fission. According to John Lilley, "The energy required to overcome the barrier to fission is called the activation energy or fission barrier and is about 6 MeV for A ≈ 240. It is found that the activation energy decreases as A increases. Eventually, a point is reached where activation energy disappears altogether...it would undergo very rapid spontaneous fission."
Maria Goeppert Mayer later proposed the nuclear shell model for the nucleus. The nuclides that can sustain a fission chain reaction are suitable for use as nuclear fuels. The most common nuclear fuels are U (the isotope of uranium with mass number 235 and of use in nuclear reactors) and Pu (the isotope of plutonium with mass number 239). These fuels break apart into a bimodal range of chemical elements with atomic masses centering near 95 and 135 daltons (fission products). Most nuclear fuels undergo spontaneous fission only very slowly, decaying instead mainly via an alpha-beta decay chain over periods of millennia to eons. In a nuclear reactor or nuclear weapon, the overwhelming majority of fission events are induced by bombardment with another particle, a neutron, which is itself produced by prior fission events.
Fissionable isotopes such as uranium-238 require additional energy provided by fast neutrons (such as those produced by nuclear fusion in thermonuclear weapons). While some of the neutrons released from the fission of  are fast enough to induce another fission in , most are not, meaning it can never achieve criticality. While there is a very small (albeit nonzero) chance of a thermal neutron inducing fission in , neutron absorption is orders of magnitude more likely.