Nuclear binding energy. Mass Defect and Binding Energy

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Exercise of Nuclear reactor physics by ing. Giorgio Bertucelli.

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Rest mass of some nuclear subparticles:

In a nuclear reaction we must check the following mass and charge balances:

The subject of nuclear stability will be not treated at this point; a semi-empirical approach, based on nuclear masses, will be used here.

Mass Defect and Binding Energy

Definition
Nuclear Binding Energy= the work required to disintegrate a nucleus completely into Z protons and (A-Z) neutrons.
The binding energy may be calculated from the equations:

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