Where does the massive amount of energy from a nuclear reaction came from?

Question

A.the energy is from the combustion of the protons
B. Protons decay into electrons releasing energy
C. some of the mass of the nucleus is converted into energy

Answer 1

C. some of the mass of the nucleus is converted into energy.

In nuclear reactions, a small amount of the mass of the nucleus is converted into a significant amount of energy, according to Einstein's equation \(E=mc^2\). This is the principle behind both nuclear fission (splitting heavy nuclei) and nuclear fusion (combining light nuclei).