Abstract: After one century of nuclear physics, its underlying fundamental laws remain a puzzle. Rutherford scattering is well known to be electric at low kinetic energy. Nobody noticed that the Rutherford scattering formula works also at high kinetic energy, needing only to replace the repulsive electric -2 exponent by the also repulsive magnetic -6 exponent. A proton attracts a not so neutral neutron as amber attracts dust. The nucleons have magnetic moments that interact as magnets, equilibrating statically the electric attraction between a proton and a not so neutral neutron. In this paper, the electromagnetic potential energies of the deuteron 2H and the α particle 4He have been calculated statically, using only electromagnetic fundamental laws and constants. Nuclear scattering and binding energy are both electromagnetic.