By , 4 months ago

Heavy nuclei contain many protons packed into a very small volume and coulomb's electrostatic repulsive force because of the other protons acts on each proton. Generally, strong small range nuclear forces dominate in the case of smaller nuclei - these are attractive forces and keep the protons together. The long range electrostatic forces are not that intense in smaller nuclei. In the case of larger nuclei however, the long range repulsive electrostatic forces dominate and compete with the short range nuclear force. Thus, large nuclei are unstable.