Energy Released in Nuclear Decays or Transmutations

This section is part of the HSC Physic syllabus Module 8: From the universe to the atom, Properties of the Nucleus.

Here we will predict quantitatively the energy released in nuclear decays or transmutations, including nuclear fission and nuclear fusion.

Some key terms we need to know are:

• Nuclear binding energy is the energy required to split a nucleus of an atom into its components.
• The mass defect of a nucleus is the mass of the energy binding the nucleus.

Conservation of Energy

The conservation of energy states that the sum of all forces in a closed system equates to zero.

Mass defect

Binding energy

Einstein’s mass-energy equivalence relationship.