Cold fusion returns?

Italian researchers claim they have gone beyond the original (and much criticized) experiments in cold fusion (often called low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR). They not only have produced cold fusion, but have a marketable product that produces 31 times the energy fed into it.
They made the claim at a press conference after their paper was rejected by a journal and their patent was rejected by the Italian government. The chief complaint is that they can't explain the mechanism by which the LENR are produced. Do they really have something, or is this another dead end?
COMMENT: I hope they have something real, but I'm waiting for an independent verdict.