The 1.8 MJ laser array that's being used to trigger these reactions, that's like 400 calories, less energy than you'd get from a ham and cheese sandwich with mayo, and the output they're hoping to achieve, 100kJ, that's 2mL of gasoline.
Also while these energies are low, they are also for very short durations. 1.8 MJ in 1 ns is 1.8 PW.
How much power it produces is the better question.
So it's actually massively powerful but very short.
If you were to burn gasoline at a rate of 2mL per 20ns you would be burning 100,000 L per second, which is a higher rate than Saturn 5 on takeoff so quite a burner...
For example, per kilogram, TNT releases less than a tenth of the energy that burning gasoline does, and a sandwich stores more energy than the equivalent weight in dynamite (but both are cheating, as TNT and dynamite both include the oxygen needed to ‘burn’ them, whereas gasoline and sandwiches don’t)
Ham sandwich prompt radiation, thermal pulse, blast, and long-term radiation effects are somewhat less than those of the Little Boy gadget. The last may depend on how much hot sauce is applied.
Both weight and volume exceeded the B-29 and would be better suited for a bulk-cargo carrier of about 30' beam, 40' depth, and 300' length.
The relationship between promptness and completeness of reaction is an interesting one, and not limited to TNT and petroleum. The WWII atomic weapons haad a pretty remarckably low efficiency --- most of the fissile material was dispersed before it could fully react. Nuclear power generation is far more efficient. And generally slower.
See related the Beruit 2020 ammonium nitrate explosion:
Even if they achieve 'burning plasma', it's still like a 100hp engine using an 1800hp spark plug.
And it’s no accident that the article doesn’t mention the laser efficiency. NIF has a public relations office that has honed its game over decades. Their purpose is to influence Congress by selective reporting through press releases and by feeding propaganda into articles like this.