Unified Deduction of Energy Release Mechanisms for Nuclear Fission and Fusion Based on the Strong Force Self-Locking Structure

Experimental observations of uranium-235 fission identify only four stable physical products: barium, krypton, cesium and xenon. The reaction can be divided into two primary pathways: approximately 65% of fission events merely restructure atomic nuclei without mass loss or energy release; around 25% correspond to paired uranium-235 fission, which serves as the main source of mass deficit and energy output. Minor residual discrepancies are attributed to statistical errors in experimental measurements. This paper introduces the strong force self-locking structure model to uniformly deduce the micro-mechanisms of nuclear fission and light nuclear fusion. Protons, neutrons and electrons all form via high-energy photons self-locking under extreme high temperature and pressure, each possessing an independent binding system. Under normal conditions, positive charges carried by protons neutralize negative charges of electrons to maintain electrical neutrality of matter. The two nuclear reactions differ fundamentally in the degree of damage to self-locking structures: heavy nuclear fission generates instantaneous extreme high temperatures at tiny local reaction points, rupturing a small fraction of nucleon binding cages and simultaneously unlocking a small number of electrons to release high and low-energy gamma photons, alongside long-lived radioactive fission fragments with decay half-lives up to tens of thousands of years. Deuterium-tritium nuclear fusion produces no substantial mass deficit; its energy release originates from the strong force self-locking potential energy stored within atomic nuclei, analogous to elastic potential energy released when a compressed spring rebounds. The extra neutron generated during fusion acquires high-speed kinetic energy from the released strong force potential to transfer thermal energy. Pure fusion does not intrinsically emit high-energy gamma photons or produce long-lived radioactive waste. Combined with mass-energy equation calculations of the mass deficit and blast yield of atomic bombs, this paper compares energy levels of tokamaks, heavy-ion collisions and black hole jets. Only full-domain high-energy environments such as heavy-ion collision facilities and black hole jets can simultaneously disintegrate all self-locking structures of protons, neutrons and electrons, eliminating carriers of positive and negative charges and reducing matter entirely to charge-free photon plasma. This work constructs a unified underlying logic for energy release in the two categories of nuclear reactions.