Question

The energy released in nuclear reactions.

I found this question online and it said it did not require anything really advanced. However I cannot seem to get anywhere with it so I was wondering if someone could help me out.

The energy releases (Q-values) for a number of nuclear reactions are as follows:

31P(gamma, n)30P Q=-12.313
31P(p, alpha)28Si Q=1.916
28Si(d, p)29Si Q=6.251
p(n, gamma)d Q=2.226
d(d, gamma)alpha Q=23.847

Find Q for 30P(d,p)31P

I am not sure if this is standard convention so the article said that a(b,c)d means a+b -> c + d.

Answer 1

You want to express the unknown reaction as a combination of the known ones.

Answer 2

I understand that much, but I cannot seem to get anywhere by adding the knowns.

I got to \[2^{31}P+2\alpha + 32.325 MeV \rightarrow 2(^{28}Si + \eta) +2x\]
Where x is the value im looking for. But it just feels as if im doing it wrong.