Examples of fissionable in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The gun-type bomb — the most basic nuclear weapon — entails using conventional explosives to fire a subcritical piece of fissionable material into another piece to then trigger the explosive nuclear reaction.
—
Brendan Rascius
july 8, Miami Herald, 8 July 2025
There was just so much fissionable material there to generate an explosion, and that’s what happened.
—Mike Fleming Jr, Deadline, 20 May 2025
These contain enriched uranium, which is high in the fissionable isotope uranium-235.
—David Szondy, New Atlas, 28 Dec. 2024
Its composition varies, but for power generation, a typical mix contains slightly less than 20 percent by mass of the highly fissionable isotope uranium-235 (U-235).
—IEEE Spectrum, 18 June 2024
In May the National Nuclear Security Administration released an investigation about four 2021 incidents: one criticality safety violation, one breach that resulted in skin contamination for three workers, and two flooding events that sent water toward fissionable materials.
—Sarah Scoles, Scientific American, 14 Nov. 2023
The incidents included two separate floods, a glovebox breach, and an instance in which an unsafe amount of fissionable material was placed in a dropbox.
—Time, 24 July 2023
Yet something was leaving Oak Ridge: Uranium 235, the fissionable isotope of the heaviest naturally occurring element on the planet.
—Denise Kiernan, Rolling Stone, 17 July 2023
The most important step was separating the fissionable material from the conventional high explosives that trigger the nuclear reaction.
—Phil Hoover, Discover Magazine, 20 Feb. 2012
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Brendan Rascius
july 8, Miami Herald, 8 July 2025
There was just so much fissionable material there to generate an explosion, and that’s what happened.
—Mike Fleming Jr, Deadline, 20 May 2025
These contain enriched uranium, which is high in the fissionable isotope uranium-235.
—David Szondy, New Atlas, 28 Dec. 2024
Its composition varies, but for power generation, a typical mix contains slightly less than 20 percent by mass of the highly fissionable isotope uranium-235 (U-235).
—IEEE Spectrum, 18 June 2024
In May the National Nuclear Security Administration released an investigation about four 2021 incidents: one criticality safety violation, one breach that resulted in skin contamination for three workers, and two flooding events that sent water toward fissionable materials.
—Sarah Scoles, Scientific American, 14 Nov. 2023
The incidents included two separate floods, a glovebox breach, and an instance in which an unsafe amount of fissionable material was placed in a dropbox.
—Time, 24 July 2023
Yet something was leaving Oak Ridge: Uranium 235, the fissionable isotope of the heaviest naturally occurring element on the planet.
—Denise Kiernan, Rolling Stone, 17 July 2023
The most important step was separating the fissionable material from the conventional high explosives that trigger the nuclear reaction.
—Phil Hoover, Discover Magazine, 20 Feb. 2012
Cite this Entry
“Fissionable.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fissionable. Accessed 24 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
fissionable
adjective
fis·sion·able
ˈfish-(ə-)nə-bəl 
ˈfizh-
: capable of going through fission
fissionable material
Medical Definition
fissionable
adjective
fis·sion·able
ˈfish-(ə-)nə-bəl
ˈfizh-
ˈfizh-
: capable of undergoing fission and especially atomic fission
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