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It ends by losing the critical mass or by introducing high neutron capturing material.
An example of nuclear fission might be a nuclear weapon. In this device, sub-critical masses of fissionable material are driven together by conventional explosives. This "assembles" a critical mass, and a chain reaction will follow. That is a nuclear fission chain reaction. In another example, a nuclear reactor has its control rods pulled and achieves criticality. It is brought to operating temperature and generates heat to make steam and drive turbines. The reactor operates on the principle of nuclear fission.
minimum amount
It becomes energy, hence the energy released in nuclear bombs.
In a critical mass, the material involved starts to undergo fission because of the presence of a dense neutron flux. The fission produces neutrons, which add to the neutron flux. This causes a great release of heat. Reaching critical mass does not imply a powerful nuclear explosion. A powerful nuclear explosion develops when critical mass is attained for a long enough time for the majority of the nuclear material to get involved. This is a very tricky thing to do and does not happen accidentally. What can happen accidentally is a nuclear "pop," a sort of small explosion which throws the material apart, destroying the critical mass, and possibly producing a lot of pollution. (This was not what happened at Chernobyl, which was steam and chemical.)
Both have critical mass, and create energy from a fission chain reaction. In nuclear bombs, the chain reaction is uncontained and spreads to all the fissionable material nearly instantaneously.
Nuclear fission should do the trick.
Energy from nuclear fusion is around 400 times more than that of nuclear fission for same mass.
Nuclear fission produces energy 2.5 million times that of carbon of same mass. Nuclear fusion produces energy 400 times that of nuclear fission of same mass.
The reflector in a nuclear weapon core is made of a material which can reflect neutrons from fission in the core back into the core, instead of wasting them. A tamper can permit a smaller mass of nuclear fuel (an unreflected subcritical mass of nuclear material can quickly become critical if a reflector is used). Depending on the material, they can also have a neutron-moderation effect. The tamper in many nuclear weapons is also the reflector.
Nuclear fission
Nuclear fusion produce energy 400 times more than nuclear fission for the same mass.