Taming the Hydra: WMD: Threat and Strategies

If a small (ten-kiloton) nuclear bomb exploded in Times Square, it would "destroy instantaneously the theater district, the New York Times building, Grand Central Terminal, and every other structure within a third of a mile. . . . The ensuing firestorm would engulf Rockefeller Center, Carnegie Hall, the Empire State Building, and Madison Square Garden. . . . On a normal workday, more than half a million people crowd the area within a half-mile radius of Times Square. A noon detonation in midtown Manhattan would kill them all. Hundreds of thousands of others would die from collapsing buildings, fire, and fallout in the ensuing hours," says Graham Allison in his book Nuclear Terrorism.