Armchair nuclear physics

Here I go again trying to figure out something that I'm not trained to do. Take all this with a grain of salt.

I'm trying to figure out this Rossi Focardi fusion of nickel into copper. What I've read from other sources say that this isn't likely or possible. But what about this? If you supply energy to the reaction, it could fuse a hydrogen atom into the nucleus. This transmutes it to copper. But if it were to beta decay back into nickel, you could do the whole thing again and again until you reach a stable isotope of copper. But wait, what happens when the unstable copper transmutes back into a nickel isotope? It is called a beta plus decay. There are two paths for a beta plus decay. The energy state in the nucleus allows it, or if this is not possible, then an electron capture takes place.

Now read this:

Since the proton is changed to a neutron in electron capture, the number of neutrons increases by 1, the number of protons decreases by 1, and the atomic mass number remains unchanged. By changing the number of protons, electron capture transforms the nuclide into a new element. The atom, although still neutral in charge, now exists in an energetically excited state with the inner shell missing an electron. While transiting to the ground state, the atom will emit an X-ray photon (a type of electromagnetic radiation) and/or Auger electrons, or both. Often the nucleus exists in an excited state as well, and emits a gamma ray in order to reach the ground state energy of the new nuclide just formed.

All this seems like a plausible explanation to me, but that doesn't mean I'm right.

If I am understanding this correctly, the amount of energy released in such a fashion could be greater than energy required for the fusion.  That would make it net energy.