Question

Given: energy released = 17.59 MeV per deuterium/tritium reaction pair (mass = 5 amu)

List the balanced nuclear reaction.

Answer 1

The given information gives us the clue that deuterium and tritium react together. We need to find the balanced nuclear reaction of deuterium and tritium; however, first, let me explain you what deuterium and tritium are.

Deuterium and tritium are two isotopes of hydrogen having atomic mass of 2 and 3 respectively. Deuterium is represented by
`^2_1H`, whereas tritium is written as
`^3_1H`.

When deuterium and tritium collide together, they form Helium atom, which is written as
`^4_2He`, and also release energy (and shoot out one neutron).

Hence, the balanced nuclear reaction will be the following:

`^2_1H + ^3_1H \rightarrow ^4_2He + ^1_0n`

-i

Answer 2

Given: energy released = 17.59 MeV per deuterium/tritium reaction pair (mass = 5 amu)
List the balanced nuclear reaction.

²₁H + ³₁H → ⁴₂He + ¹₀n

Hope this helps