I read somewhere that Tony Stark measured Cyclops output to 2 Gigawatts of energy.

What does that measure to? Is that mountain level in destructive capacity? Island, city, country?

I read online that it could power a country, but that doesn't translate to destructive capacity.

Im not good at this but i will try okay:

2 gigawatts is equal to 2,000,000,000 watts which is equal to 2,000,000,000 Joules of energy (released, produced, used, consumed depending on the circumstances) in one second.

2,000,000,000 joules as the online conversion says is ~equal to 0.000478 kilotons. The Hiroshima bomb (according to wikipedia) has an estimated energy content of 15 kilotons of energy (probably released in a fraction of a second during the explosion).

@mimisalome: Isn't 15 kilotons the energy unleashed in the entire nuclear blast (which would make it much longer)?

i don't really know. Im not an atomic bomb expert so im just guessing

Atomic explosion is complex process considering that it could create a chain reaction of other type of explosion (eg: when it detonates explosives materials/combustible materials in the premises), atmospheric disturbances like precipitation and shock wave, collapse/burning/deterioration of infrastructure.

The 15 kilotons itself may have been released in a fraction of a second but the entire process of explosion could go on for minutes depending on the condition of the immediate environment

Isn't it around about half the peak power output of the Doel Nuclear Power Plant?

btw, Scott isn't normally that strong, he was being controled when that happened

Nuclear Power Plant are controlled nuclear reactions. They release nuclear energy a little at a time (if you are right then it would be 2,000,000,000 joules per second divided by 2).

If they gone out of control, they are most likely to melt, boring through their protective container, sinking deep into the earth while releasing radioactive materials instead of exploding catastrophically.

So its not a good gauge since the OP is asking in terms of destructive output (and he is imagining a mountain busting kind of destruction)

Though im not saying that 2,000,000,000 joules per second is not a considerable amount of energy. That is a relatively huge amount of energy for practical combat consideration

Bump