A deformed-jellium model is used to calculate the fission barrier height of positive doubly charged
sodium clusters within an extended Thomas-Fermi approximation. The fissioning cluster is continuously
deformed from the parent configuration until it splits into two fragments. Although the
shape of the fission barrier obviously depends on the parametrization of the fission path, we have
found that remarkably, the maximum of the barrier corresponds to a configuration in which the
emerging fragments are already formed and rather well apart. The implication of this finding in the
calculation of critical numbers for fission is illustrated in the case of multiply charged Na clusters
