Mono- and Binuclear Reactions

The simplest form of a nuclear reaction is radioactive decay according to eq. (4.2)  

This is a mononuclear or first-order reaction which is often referred to in chemical kinetics as an example of a real first-order reaction. In nuclear science, however, binuclear reactions are generally understood by the term nuclear reactions . They are described by the equation  

The first binuclear reaction was observed in a cloud chamber in 1919 by Rutherford  

The sum of the mass numbers and the sum of the atomic numbers must each be the same on the left- and right-hand sides of the equation. The short form of eq. (8.2) is 

For all nuclear reactions the conservation laws (number of nucleons, charge, sum of mass and energy equivalent of mass, momentum, angular momentum, parity) are valid. The main differences between chemical reactions and nuclear reactions are the following  

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