Raw energy numbers can be misleading. Chemical explosives convert nearly all their energy into hot, dense gases that push outward, generating intense blast pressure. In contrast, DT fusion releases about 80% of its energy as high-energy neutrons that penetrate deep into the surrounding blanket, where the energy becomes heat—not pressure. Only a tiny fraction contributes to a shock wave. So despite having the same total energy as ~1000 sticks of dynamite, a small DT fusion burst produces nowhere near the same physical destruction.
A 3 mg DT burst packs the energy of ~1000 sticks of dynamite, but ejects eight orders of magnitude less mass. Since momentum scales with the square root of mass, dynamite is ~40,000 times better at delivering a shove - and it’s that shove, not heat, that wrecks buildings and flips cars.
This means BSF can operate safely with higher yields - good news:
Yields from ICF targets increase super-linearly with the amount of driver energy. Ideally, to maximize gain, the reactor should operate at the highest yield it can tolerate, even if that means a lower repetition rate. For instance, Sandia National Laboratories proposed 20 GJ targets in their 2005 annual report for a cylindrical Z-IFE chamber (6 m radius, 8 m height) running at 0.1 Hz to produce 2000 MW. Their reasoning: “The economics of scale will favor having a single chamber with the largest acceptable yield.” A lower repetition rate also simplifies pumping the hot blanket material between pulses.