Nuclear Reactions

Binding Energy

The binding energy of a nuclide may be accessed either as an attribute of a Particle instance, or by using the nuclear_binding_energy function.

>>> from plasmapy.atomic import Particle, nuclear_binding_energy
>>> D = Particle('deuterium')
>>> D.binding_energy
<Quantity 3.56414847e-13 J>
>>> nuclear_binding_energy('D').to('GeV')
<Quantity 2.22456652 MeV>

Nuclear Reactions

The energy released from a nuclear reaction may be found using the nuclear_reaction_energy function. The input may be a str representing the reaction.

>>> from plasmapy.atomic import nuclear_reaction_energy
>>> nuclear_reaction_energy('Be-8 -> 2*alpha')
<Quantity 1.47143078e-14 J>

The reaction may also be inputted using the reactants and products keywords.

>>> nuclear_reaction_energy(reactants=['D', 'T'], products=['alpha', 'n'])
<Quantity 17.58932778 MeV>