1 kiloton (1,000 tons) of TNT = $0.002 (or 1/5th of a penny)
Hiroshima
15 kilotons (Mark 1 “Little Boy”) = $0.03 (three cents)
Nagasaki
21 kilotons (Mark 3 “Fat Man”) = $0.04 (four cents)
The Thermonuclear Age
1 megaton (1,000,000 tons or 1,000 kilotons) of TNT = $2.00
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World War Two (conventional weapons)
3.4 megatons dropped by Allies between 1939 and 1945 = $6.80
Bikini Atoll
15 megatons (Mark 16 “Castle Bravo”) = $30.00
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25 megatons (Mark 24) = $50.00
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Tsar Bomba
50 megatons (Tsar Bomba, USSR) = $100.00
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Total US Strategic Nuclear Armory
2,200 megatons * = $4,400.00
* Does not include “tactical” weapons, most of which are stronger than the weapon that destroyed Hiroshima.
It is estimated that the United States possesses 40% of the world’s nuclear weapons, Russia 55%, with the remaining 5% divided up among China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom.
A kiloton of TNT can be visualized as a cube of TNT 27.8 ft on a side.
