[Accujack]

A fizzle is just a nuclear weapon that doesn't reach its design potential yield, which isn't the same thing as no nuclear criticality.

A 5 MT hydrogen bomb that "only" yields 750 kt of explosive power is a fizzle, but you don't want to be anywhere near when it happens.

[laverya]

Yeah, fizzle was a bad choice of word. I'm not sure what you'd call an intentionally subcritical detonation, though.