SakashiroIt's actually mind-boggling that carriers require one of the scarcest fuels in the galaxy while any other ship can just scoop fuel from stars.
As I understand it, canonically the power plants of non-FC ships in ED are using proton:proton fusion reactions (which is why we can scoop fuel, we are scooping hydrogen, hydrogen being 1 x proton with an electron). Though they are more likely doing hydrogen:deuterium fusion, but I digress...
FC's burning tritium as a fuel are probably doing deuterium:tritium fusion. The energy yield of d:t fusion is about 40x the yield for h:d fusion. I imagine is it necessary to have that kind of energy yield to power the drive that rips a gaping chasm in space time for a FC, rather than the delicate little tunnel for the other ships.