I could cite you things like this: (
https://www.osti.gov/biblio/6276900) but they will likely be buzzword soup.
The simplest explanation is that the fusion reactor's energy output is the _primary_ heat source for a heat engine like a steam turbine.
It sounded from your description that your company was targeting so called "waste" heat, which is a lower grade of heat (smaller delta between ambient so a smaller temperature differential to work with). There are limits to the efficiency of being able to convert heat into some other form of energy (kinetic, chemical, electric, Etc.) because that is how the universe works sadly.
That said, when you have a very large heat differential, as you do from fusion or fission reactions, converting even a small percentage of that can be a net win in terms of production.
So fusion is different in that it can take a small amount of widely available "fuel" and release a large amount of energy by "burning" it (in actuality fusing it into a new element, but the effect is that the original fuel is no longer available for use) and then using that heat to run heat engines that are producing electricity. The waste products are the fused result and heat in the form of highly energetic alpha particles.
The simplest explanation is that the fusion reactor's energy output is the _primary_ heat source for a heat engine like a steam turbine.
It sounded from your description that your company was targeting so called "waste" heat, which is a lower grade of heat (smaller delta between ambient so a smaller temperature differential to work with). There are limits to the efficiency of being able to convert heat into some other form of energy (kinetic, chemical, electric, Etc.) because that is how the universe works sadly.
That said, when you have a very large heat differential, as you do from fusion or fission reactions, converting even a small percentage of that can be a net win in terms of production.
So fusion is different in that it can take a small amount of widely available "fuel" and release a large amount of energy by "burning" it (in actuality fusing it into a new element, but the effect is that the original fuel is no longer available for use) and then using that heat to run heat engines that are producing electricity. The waste products are the fused result and heat in the form of highly energetic alpha particles.