For your future advantage in these discussions, please know that going critical is a prerequisite for power generation; it is the steady state in which a fissio

For your future advantage in these discussions, please know that going critical is a prerequisite for power generation; it is the steady state in which a fission-causing neutron is given off from each fission. A sub-critical reactor requires power input because it is not giving off enough energy to sustain the chain reaction; its population of fission-causing neutrons will exponentially decay, if left alone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_mass https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_mass