It sounds as if they are saying that, at least you get back more of the energy you put into it.
I am, frankly, still bothered by all of this fusion hoopla. They are using heavy isotopes with extra neutrons to even make the creation of helium possible. Unless you can force the production of neutrons, I don’t believe that you have fusion, no matter what you call it.
I agree. And even if it's technically fusion, there's still the impractical matter (pardon the pun) of creating the neutrons to feed it. IMHO, it means we'd have to fight the Weak Nuclear Force (or perhaps it'd be strengthen the WNF to get more bare neutrons out of it) so much that we'd be using up more energy to generate neutrons than we'd save by having fusion.
Take two tachyons and call me in the morning.