In nuclear engineering, an assembly is prompt critical if for each nuclear fission event, one or more of the immediate or prompt neutrons released causes an additional fission event. This causes a rapid, exponential increase in the number of fission events. Prompt criticality is a special case of supercriticality.
Read more about Prompt Critical: Criticality, Critical Versus Prompt-critical, Nuclear Reactors, List of Accidental Prompt Critical Excursions, Nuclear Weapons
Famous quotes containing the words prompt and/or critical:
“You shall be as a father to my youth,
My voice shall sound as you do prompt mine ear,
And I will stoop and humble my intents
To your well-practiced wise directions.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“A third variety of drama ... begins as tragedy with scraps of fun in it ... and ends in comedy without mirth in it, the place of mirth being taken by a more or less bitter and critical irony.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)