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John Rennie
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When calculating the energy released by the $\alpha$ decay of ${}^{238}\text{U}$ you cannot ignore the binding energy of the alpha particle or you will get a spectacularly wrong result. The

You can finding binding energies on this web site. Using this data the calculation for the energy released in ${}^{238}U$ $\alpha$ decay is:

Nucleus BE per nucleon (/MeV) No. nucleons Total BE (/MeV)
U-238 7.57015 238 1801.696
Th-234 7.59688 234 1777.670
He-4 7.07392 4 28.296

Then the energy released is the binding energy of the products minus the binding energy of the ${}^{238}\text{U}$:

$$ \Delta E = 1777.670 + 28.296 - 1801.696 = 4.270~\text{MeV} $$

Which reassuringly agrees with the value given by Wikipedia. If you ignored the binding energy of the helium nucleus your result would be wrong by $28.296$ MeV! If you'd like to give a link to the page where you saw the He binding energy apparently being ignored we can have a look at it and see what's wrong.

You ask about the hydrogen fusion process. If we take the commercially significant process $D + T \to He + n$ then the energies for this are:

Nucleus BE per nucleon (/MeV) No. nucleons Total BE (/MeV)
D-2 1.11228 2 2.225
T-3 2.82727 3 8.482
He-4 7.07392 4 28.296

And again the energy released is the BE of the products minus the BE of the two initial nuclei so it's:

$$ \Delta E = 28.296 - (8.482 + 2.225) = 17.589~\text{MeV} $$

So the fusion releases more energy than the fission.

In a comment you ask about the reaction ${}^2D + {}^2D \to {}^3He + n$ and for this the energy is:

Nucleus BE per nucleon (/MeV) No. nucleons Total BE (/MeV)
D-2 1.11228 2 2.225
He-4 2.57269 3 7.718

$$ \Delta E = 7.718 - (2.225 + 2.225) = 3.268~\text{MeV} $$

and this is indeed less than the energy released in ${}^{238}U$ fission. However I don't think there is a way to see this just by looking at the binding energy per nucleon graph. You need to do the calculation. The trouble is that for the calculation we need the total energy, and that's the BE per nucleon multiplied by the number of nucleons.

When calculating the energy released by the $\alpha$ decay of ${}^{238}\text{U}$ you cannot ignore the binding energy of the alpha particle or you will get a spectacularly wrong result. The calculation for the energy released is:

Nucleus BE per nucleon (/MeV) No. nucleons Total BE (/MeV)
U-238 7.57015 238 1801.696
Th-234 7.59688 234 1777.670
He-4 7.07392 4 28.296

Then the energy released is the binding energy of the products minus the binding energy of the ${}^{238}\text{U}$:

$$ \Delta E = 1777.670 + 28.296 - 1801.696 = 4.270~\text{MeV} $$

Which reassuringly agrees with the value given by Wikipedia. If you ignored the binding energy of the helium nucleus your result would be wrong by $28.296$ MeV! If you'd like to give a link to the page where you saw the He binding energy apparently being ignored we can have a look at it and see what's wrong.

You ask about the hydrogen fusion process. If we take the commercially significant process $D + T \to He + n$ then the energies for this are:

Nucleus BE per nucleon (/MeV) No. nucleons Total BE (/MeV)
D-2 1.11228 2 2.225
T-3 2.82727 3 8.482
He-4 7.07392 4 28.296

And again the energy released is the BE of the products minus the BE of the two initial nuclei so it's:

$$ \Delta E = 28.296 - (8.482 + 2.225) = 17.589~\text{MeV} $$

So the fusion releases more energy than the fission.

In a comment you ask about the reaction ${}^2D + {}^2D \to {}^3He + n$ and for this the energy is:

Nucleus BE per nucleon (/MeV) No. nucleons Total BE (/MeV)
D-2 1.11228 2 2.225
He-4 2.57269 3 7.718

$$ \Delta E = 7.718 - (2.225 + 2.225) = 3.268~\text{MeV} $$

and this is indeed less than the energy released in ${}^{238}U$ fission. However I don't think there is a way to see this just by looking at the binding energy per nucleon graph. You need to do the calculation. The trouble is that for the calculation we need the total energy, and that's the BE per nucleon multiplied by the number of nucleons.

When calculating the energy released by the $\alpha$ decay of ${}^{238}\text{U}$ you cannot ignore the binding energy of the alpha particle or you will get a spectacularly wrong result.

You can finding binding energies on this web site. Using this data the calculation for the energy released in ${}^{238}U$ $\alpha$ decay is:

Nucleus BE per nucleon (/MeV) No. nucleons Total BE (/MeV)
U-238 7.57015 238 1801.696
Th-234 7.59688 234 1777.670
He-4 7.07392 4 28.296

Then the energy released is the binding energy of the products minus the binding energy of the ${}^{238}\text{U}$:

$$ \Delta E = 1777.670 + 28.296 - 1801.696 = 4.270~\text{MeV} $$

Which reassuringly agrees with the value given by Wikipedia. If you ignored the binding energy of the helium nucleus your result would be wrong by $28.296$ MeV! If you'd like to give a link to the page where you saw the He binding energy apparently being ignored we can have a look at it and see what's wrong.

You ask about the hydrogen fusion process. If we take the commercially significant process $D + T \to He + n$ then the energies for this are:

Nucleus BE per nucleon (/MeV) No. nucleons Total BE (/MeV)
D-2 1.11228 2 2.225
T-3 2.82727 3 8.482
He-4 7.07392 4 28.296

And again the energy released is the BE of the products minus the BE of the two initial nuclei so it's:

$$ \Delta E = 28.296 - (8.482 + 2.225) = 17.589~\text{MeV} $$

So the fusion releases more energy than the fission.

In a comment you ask about the reaction ${}^2D + {}^2D \to {}^3He + n$ and for this the energy is:

Nucleus BE per nucleon (/MeV) No. nucleons Total BE (/MeV)
D-2 1.11228 2 2.225
He-4 2.57269 3 7.718

$$ \Delta E = 7.718 - (2.225 + 2.225) = 3.268~\text{MeV} $$

and this is indeed less than the energy released in ${}^{238}U$ fission. However I don't think there is a way to see this just by looking at the binding energy per nucleon graph. You need to do the calculation. The trouble is that for the calculation we need the total energy, and that's the BE per nucleon multiplied by the number of nucleons.

Tweak
Source Link
John Rennie
  • 362.7k
  • 132
  • 780
  • 1.1k

When calculating the energy released by the $\alpha$ decay of ${}^{238}\text{U}$ you cannot ignore the binding energy of the alpha particle or you will get a spectacularly wrong result. The calculation for the energy released is:

Nucleus BE per nucleon (/MeV) No. nucleons Total BE (/MeV)
U-238 7.57015 238 1801.696
Th-234 7.59688 234 1777.670
He-4 7.07392 4 28.296

Then the energy released is the binding energy of the products minus the binding energy of the ${}^{238}\text{U}$:

$$ \Delta E = 1777.670 + 28.296 - 1801.696 = 4.270~\text{MeV} $$

Which reassuringly agrees with the value given by Wikipedia. If you ignored the binding energy of the helium nucleus your result would be wrong by $28.296$ MeV! If you'd like to give a link to the page where you saw the He binding energy apparently being ignored we can have a look at it and see what's wrong.

You ask about the hydrogen fusion process. If we take the commercially significant process $D + T \to He + n$ then the energies for this are:

Nucleus BE per nucleon (/MeV) No. nucleons Total BE (/MeV)
D-2 21.8272711228 2 82.482225
T-3 12.1122882727 3 28.225482
He-4 7.07392 4 28.296

And again the energy released is the BE of the products minus the BE of the two initial nuclei so it's:

$$ \Delta E = 28.296 - (8.482 + 2.225) = 17.589~\text{MeV} $$

So the fusion releases more energy than the fission.

In a comment you ask about the reaction ${}^2D + {}^2D \to {}^3He + n$ and for this the energy is:

NucleusBE per nucleon (/MeV)No. nucleonsTotal BE (/MeV)
D-21.1122822.225
He-42.5726937.718

$$ \Delta E = 7.718 - (2.225 + 2.225) = 3.268~\text{MeV} $$

and this is indeed less than the energy released in ${}^{238}U$ fission. However I don't think there is a way to see this just by looking at the binding energy per nucleon graph. You need to do the calculation. The trouble is that for the calculation we need the total energy, and that's the BE per nucleon multiplied by the number of nucleons.

When calculating the energy released by the $\alpha$ decay of ${}^{238}\text{U}$ you cannot ignore the binding energy of the alpha particle or you will get a spectacularly wrong result. The calculation for the energy released is:

Nucleus BE per nucleon (/MeV) No. nucleons Total BE (/MeV)
U-238 7.57015 238 1801.696
Th-234 7.59688 234 1777.670
He-4 7.07392 4 28.296

Then the energy released is the binding energy of the products minus the binding energy of the ${}^{238}\text{U}$:

$$ \Delta E = 1777.670 + 28.296 - 1801.696 = 4.270~\text{MeV} $$

Which reassuringly agrees with the value given by Wikipedia. If you ignored the binding energy of the helium nucleus your result would be wrong by $28.296$ MeV! If you'd like to give a link to the page where you saw the He binding energy apparently being ignored we can have a look at it and see what's wrong.

You ask about the hydrogen fusion process. If we take the commercially significant process $D + T \to He + n$ then the energies for this are:

Nucleus BE per nucleon (/MeV) No. nucleons Total BE (/MeV)
D-2 2.82727 2 8.482
T-3 1.11228 3 2.225
He-4 7.07392 4 28.296

And again the energy released is the BE of the products minus the BE of the two initial nuclei so it's:

$$ \Delta E = 28.296 - (8.482 + 2.225) = 17.589~\text{MeV} $$

So the fusion releases more energy than the fission.

When calculating the energy released by the $\alpha$ decay of ${}^{238}\text{U}$ you cannot ignore the binding energy of the alpha particle or you will get a spectacularly wrong result. The calculation for the energy released is:

Nucleus BE per nucleon (/MeV) No. nucleons Total BE (/MeV)
U-238 7.57015 238 1801.696
Th-234 7.59688 234 1777.670
He-4 7.07392 4 28.296

Then the energy released is the binding energy of the products minus the binding energy of the ${}^{238}\text{U}$:

$$ \Delta E = 1777.670 + 28.296 - 1801.696 = 4.270~\text{MeV} $$

Which reassuringly agrees with the value given by Wikipedia. If you ignored the binding energy of the helium nucleus your result would be wrong by $28.296$ MeV! If you'd like to give a link to the page where you saw the He binding energy apparently being ignored we can have a look at it and see what's wrong.

You ask about the hydrogen fusion process. If we take the commercially significant process $D + T \to He + n$ then the energies for this are:

Nucleus BE per nucleon (/MeV) No. nucleons Total BE (/MeV)
D-2 1.11228 2 2.225
T-3 2.82727 3 8.482
He-4 7.07392 4 28.296

And again the energy released is the BE of the products minus the BE of the two initial nuclei so it's:

$$ \Delta E = 28.296 - (8.482 + 2.225) = 17.589~\text{MeV} $$

So the fusion releases more energy than the fission.

In a comment you ask about the reaction ${}^2D + {}^2D \to {}^3He + n$ and for this the energy is:

NucleusBE per nucleon (/MeV)No. nucleonsTotal BE (/MeV)
D-21.1122822.225
He-42.5726937.718

$$ \Delta E = 7.718 - (2.225 + 2.225) = 3.268~\text{MeV} $$

and this is indeed less than the energy released in ${}^{238}U$ fission. However I don't think there is a way to see this just by looking at the binding energy per nucleon graph. You need to do the calculation. The trouble is that for the calculation we need the total energy, and that's the BE per nucleon multiplied by the number of nucleons.

Source Link
John Rennie
  • 362.7k
  • 132
  • 780
  • 1.1k

When calculating the energy released by the $\alpha$ decay of ${}^{238}\text{U}$ you cannot ignore the binding energy of the alpha particle or you will get a spectacularly wrong result. The calculation for the energy released is:

Nucleus BE per nucleon (/MeV) No. nucleons Total BE (/MeV)
U-238 7.57015 238 1801.696
Th-234 7.59688 234 1777.670
He-4 7.07392 4 28.296

Then the energy released is the binding energy of the products minus the binding energy of the ${}^{238}\text{U}$:

$$ \Delta E = 1777.670 + 28.296 - 1801.696 = 4.270~\text{MeV} $$

Which reassuringly agrees with the value given by Wikipedia. If you ignored the binding energy of the helium nucleus your result would be wrong by $28.296$ MeV! If you'd like to give a link to the page where you saw the He binding energy apparently being ignored we can have a look at it and see what's wrong.

You ask about the hydrogen fusion process. If we take the commercially significant process $D + T \to He + n$ then the energies for this are:

Nucleus BE per nucleon (/MeV) No. nucleons Total BE (/MeV)
D-2 2.82727 2 8.482
T-3 1.11228 3 2.225
He-4 7.07392 4 28.296

And again the energy released is the BE of the products minus the BE of the two initial nuclei so it's:

$$ \Delta E = 28.296 - (8.482 + 2.225) = 17.589~\text{MeV} $$

So the fusion releases more energy than the fission.