Nuclear Force

In the context of nuclear fusion energy, the nuclear force refers to the short range force that binds the nucleons in atomic nucleus together. This allows the like-charged protons (positive charge) to be tightly bound to the atomic nuclei, overcoming the electromagnetic Coulomb forces that would act to repel these particles. The Coulombic forces dominate over the long range compared to the nuclear force and vice-versa.

The strength of this residual force varies with separating distance between nuclei. It is repulsive at very low separation distances between nuclei, but attractive at higher distances. The magnitude of the force decays to negligible amount as the distance increases, and Coulomb forces dominate at those distances.

While this level of abstraction may be sufficient for studying the physics of nuclear fusion with the aim of commercial energy generation, this nuclear force is in reality a manifestation of a more fundamental force. The strong force is one of the four fundamental forces in physics, and is mediated by force carriers known as gluons. It acts between the elementary particles, quarks, to form subatomic particles such as protons and neutrons. Between nucleons, the exchange of mesons is used as a model to explain the force holding them together, which is a residual force from the strong force interaction, and therefore also called residual strong force.

Equation content: $${Energy} = \left({Mass}_{Products} - {Mass}_{Reactants}\right)\cdot c^2 $$