Hi All

Gary why muck about with a fusion reactor? The damn things weigh too much and the radiator would be ridiculously huge. Unless someone can crack the aneutronic fuels and have a direct power-conversion system.

Use the fusion technology we know and love - fusion bomblets! An Orion/Daedalus style craft is more doable and such a damn easy interstellar drive. Tack on a magnetic-sail and you don't even need fuel at the destination. Dyson reckoned an exhaust velocity of ~ 0.03c was doable, so 0.1c final V is not a huge stretch. Build Enzmann-class starships in orbit around Saturn or Uranus out of fuel mined from the planet, haulled up by NTR-powered ramscoops. With sufficient closed-loop ecology and manufacturing a starship fleet could cruise the Galaxy indefinitely, dropping off excess population [willing, mind] at suitable planets.

Or wait a bit until laser-sails or particle-beam propulsion become cheap enough and get a push to a decent speed say ~ 0.5c or so. Or nano-facture pellets with a bit of self-guidance and fling them at a starship at whatever speed you want and boost up to near-light speed. Eventually any determined group could buy a starship [or get one sponsored by a government happy to see them leave] with a closed-loop manufacturing system and go off to colonise any bit of the Galaxy.

Who needs FTL? TV script writers.

Adam