Mirrors versus diffuse reflection

>>>The light does not go through a glass window in the end cap, there is
simply
a hole open to space that allows for the concentrated sunlight to pass
through. The magnetic coils keep the plasma bottled up along the axis of
the
cylinder, and a glass tube keeps the atmosphere to the outside of the
cylinder by connecting with the sides of the openings of the end caps. The
sunlight keeps the plasma at the center of the cylinder a plasma and
additional solar power is collected to maintain the magnetic field. This
is
simular to the bottle of a magnetic confinement fusion reactor except the
plasma is only heated up to the surface temperature of the sun. Perhaps
later
on you could modify this arrangement and have a fusion reactor directly
heat
up an outer sheaf of plasma that provides illumination to the colony, in
this
case the colony could be located anywhere, even interstellar space.>>>

Designing and building such a huge and complex magnetic confinement
system would be quite an achivement. But is it really likely to be easier
than simply reflecting the sunlight into transparent windows? I can see the
advantage of artificial lighting systems, when designing interstellar
colonies. But it is likely to be 200 years before we need them. In the
inner solar system, normal sunlight is plentiful and desperate measures
which involve huge glowing plasma's and complex containment systems are not
neccesary.

Tony