# How can the products of a higher energy fusion reaction be heavier?

I was told the mass defect of an atom is the difference in mass of the atom versus it's particles, for example:

carbon 12 is less massive than 6 protons + 6 neutrons + 6 electrons.

this negative difference means carbon has a negative mass defect, thus energy is released when carbon is formed, or energy is required to split carbon into it's particles.

more mass -> less mass + energy

right?

so...

for deuterium + deuterium -> either (neutron + He-3) or (proton + tritium), I would assume that a less massive product would also yield more energy. In these reactions, the reactants are the same, but I'm reading that the He-3 reaction generates 3.27 MeV and the tritium reaction generates 4.03 MeV. (image bellow from this link). is this value per nucleon or something?

Since the tritium reaction yields more energy, how can it be that tritium is heavier (more massive) than He-3?

Tritium: 3.0160492 u
He-3:    3.0160293 u


If tritium has more mass than He-3, shouldn't that reaction produce less energy?

Is the extra proton and neutron in each reaction weighed differently?