One of the extraordinary sequences in the operation of a fission reaction is that of the production of iodine-135 as a
fission product and its subsequent decay into xenon-135. Iodine-135 is a rather common fission product, reportedly amounting to up to 6% of the fission products. It has a rather small probability for absorbing a neutron, so it is not in itself a significant factor in the reaction rate control. But it has a
half-life of about 6.7 hours and decays into xenon-135 (half-life 9.2 hours). The xenon-135 has a
very large cross-section for neutron absorption, about 3 million
barns under reactor conditions! This compares to 400-600 barns for the uranium fission event.
In the normal operation of a nuclear reactor, the presence of the xenon-135 is dealt with in the balancing of the reaction rate. Iodine-135 is produced, decays into xenon-135 which absorbs neutrons and is therby "burned away" in the established balance of the operating conditions. There is an equilibrium concentration of both iodine-135 and xenon-135.