splitting one atom makes an utterly insignificant release of energy... it is the chain reaction that this yields that is important... when the atom splits, it releases energy and the remains (protons and neutrons) these remains are propelled into surrounding atoms, causing them to split, and we get an exponential increase in energy released...

its a little like the story about the man who worked for a month. he was paid a penny on the first day, and his pay was doubled each day... he made 10 million dollars on the last day alone...


also, just for reference, Kilotons are a measurement of the explosive force of a weight of Tri-Nitro Toluene at STP...

that means a 1 kiloton explosion would require 2,000,000 pounds of TNT to achieve by conventional means.

also, you should know that, 1 megaton is 1000 kilotons.


if you want a good understanding of the damage entailed, see
http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/gmap/hydesim.html
enter a location you're familiar with, and a blast yield, and it will show you a map of the radius of various effects

for reference, most US bombs are in the 500 Kiloton range, but Fusion bombs (like the Hydrogen bomb, AKA the H-bomb) tend to be in the 1-20 Megaton range.
Source(s):
wikipedia,
personal experience

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