In the description of the sun given in
http://www.nineplanets.org/sol.html , the energy output is given as:
Quote:
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The Sun's energy output (3.86e33 ergs/second or 386 billion billion megawatts) is produced by nuclear fusion reactions. Each second about 700,000,000 tons of hydrogen are converted to about 695,000,000 tons of helium and 5,000,000 tons (=3.86e33 ergs) of energy in the form of gamma rays. As it travels out toward the surface, the energy is continuously absorbed and re-emitted at lower and lower temperatures so that by the time it reaches the surface, it is primarily visible light. For the last 20% of the way to the surface the energy is carried more by convection than by radiation.
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These values seem plausible and they describe a powerful fusion energy plant. A fusion plant of whatever size will have to have its energy harnessed by some interfacing equipment to get the power in usable form. I suggest we take the fusion plant nature has provided and work on harnessing its energy which seems more easily obtained than building a fusion device from scratch.
The implication from the description is that fusion produces energy primarily in the form of gamma rays (I had assumed that it was scattered across a larger bandwidth) which are exceedingly difficult to confine/shield and this will add to the difficulty of the design of less powerful fusion devices. I'm not a fan of fusion power (except as produced in stars) for interstellar transportation.