[jdewerd]

What's more, the technique is in one sense very well explored: ablation drive is how fusion bombs work.

Putting Deuterium and Tritium (well, LiD which becomes D+T) in the middle of a fission bomb doesn't squeeze it hard/long enough to boost the yield of the fission bomb 1000x. Focusing the x-rays from a fission bomb onto a uranium "pusher" and driving it forward with the reaction force of vaporizing uranium does squeeze hard enough to generate fusion yield far in excess of the fission primary.

If this sounds vaguely familiar, you might be thinking of the Hohlraum at the NIF that recently made the press for getting more energy out than was deposited in. That strategy doesn't scale into a power plant but it does a brilliant job of simulating fusion bombs, which is why the DOE / NNSA can pursue it with so much money.