Critical mass implies that there is sufficient mass of fissile material to attain criticality. The heat generated has nought to do with criticality.
It generates heat from gamma and beta decays of all the fission products. Not mass. Heat generated per unit volume doesnt change, regardless of the number of units of volume you may have.
“fission”
It is also dependent of purity, which at this point is questionable. And I think the entire MX system is to prevent that. And prevent it ever being used as weapons grade again.
huh?
The heat comes FROM the nuclear material generating its own heat. And that only happens if there is enough material in close proximity togther to start reactions.
That is how a nuclear reactor works. They put rods of material cose together so they will generate heat. They seperate these rods od material with control rods, that block the reaction. (this is simplified and you probable know this, i am just pointing out so others will understand what us nerds are talking about)
They generate more or less heat by raising and lowering the control rods
So.. when a meltdown occurs there was so much heat the material melts and pools together, making it even worse.
So, the heat generated exponentially increases. It is 100% related to the mass of the material
I am missine your point. What do you think sustains the heat for a continuing meltdown if not the mass of the material?
I grant that I may be mis-using the term ‘critical’ it may mean critical as in enough to explode.