text: The most common nuclear fission process is "binary fission." It produces two charged asymmetrical fission products with maximally probable charged product at 95±15 and 135±15 u atomic mass. However, in this conventional fission of large nuclei, the binary process happens merely because it is the most energetically probable. 
  In anywhere from 2 to 4 fissions per 1000 in a nuclear reactor, the alternative ternary fission process produces three positively charged fragments (plus neutrons, which are not charged and not counted in this reckoning). The smallest of the charged products may range from so small a charge and mass as a single proton (Z=1), up to as large a fragment as the nucleus of argon (Z=18). 
  Although particles as large as argon nuclei may be produced as the smaller (third) charged product in the usual ternary fission, the most common small fragments from ternary fission are helium-4 nuclei, which make up about 90% of the small fragment products. This high incidence is related to the stability (high binding energy) of the alpha particle, which makes more energy available to the reaction. The second-most common particles produced in ternary fission are Tritons (the nuclei of tritium), which make up 7% of the total small fragments, and the third-most are helium-6 nuclei (which decay in about 0.8 seconds to lithium-6). Protons and larger nuclei are in the small fraction (< 2%) which make up the remainder of the small charged products. The two larger charged particles from ternary fission, particularly when alphas are produced, are quite similar in size distribution to those produced in binary fission.