The structure of light atomic nuclei, such as hydrogen, helium and lithium nuclides, was studied based on the cluster approach. Atomic nuclei are formed as systems consisting of free and bound lovetons, as well as neutron electrons and electron-positron pairs. The work focuses on the mass of the atomic nucleus and its binding energy as the main basic characteristics. There were determined the mechanisms considered binding nucleons into clusters, as well as the main patterns of changes in binding energy depending on the structure of the nucleus.As part of this study, atomic nuclei were visualized and the dependence of the nuclear binding energy on the number of lovetons, electron-positron pairs and neutron electrons was revealed. The possibility of forming a shell structure of an atomic nucleus consisting of cluster associations of α-particles has been shown. An algorithm for constructing the structure of the atomic nucleus is presented. The conditions for choosing the number of nuclear elements included in the atomic nucleus are determined. As additional results, an estimate of the binding energies of hypothetical hydrogen nuclides 8H and 9H was obtained, and their mass formulas were constructed. The charge radii of a number of hydrogen, helium and lithium nuclides have been calculated. The possibility of using the spiral structure of nuclei instead of the shell representation has been revealed. The nature of the occurrence of the binding energy of the atomic nucleus is explained. Comparison of the obtained values of binding energies and charge radii with experimental data allows us to assert an adequate approach to the formation of the structure of the atomic nucleus.