  The nuclear interaction is responsible for keeping neutrons and protons
joined in an atomic nucleus. Phenomenological nuclear potentials, fitted to
experimental data, allow one to know about the nuclear behaviour with more or
less success where quantum mechanics is hard to be used. A nuclear potential is
suggested and an expression for the potential energy of two nuclear entities,
either nuclei or nucleons, is developed. In order to estimate parameters in
this expression, some nucleon additions to nuclei are considered and a model is
suggested as a guide of the addition process. Coulomb barrier and energy for
the addition of a proton to each one of several nuclei are estimated by taking
into account both the nuclear and electrostatic components of energy. Studies
on the binding energies of several nuclei and on the fusion reaction of two
nuclei are carried out.
