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This essay is leaning very hard on the fact that there are 5% the number of warheads today as there were at the peak of the cold war. Nuclear weapons are exactly as destructive as we think; the sum total of the nuclear arsenal is far smaller than when many of us formed our impressions.

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And the average yield is just 300-800 kt. A lot less than the megaton size bombs of the cold war.

Where did you get that number from?

3rd paragraph, although parent may have a typo - rather than 300 - 800 it says 300 - 500

In practice, most strategic nuclear warheads today are in the 300-500 kT range, with tactical weapons being smaller. If we take the American W88 (455 kT) as representative of this range

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