Skywalker, On NPR we'll just have to agree to disagree
As Comander-in-Chief who ever holds the office of President of the United States has to be prepared to use Nuclear Weapons. Having said that I wouldn't fear a Nuclear launch, 11 Sept, 2001, handed the USA the greatest single excuse to use nuclear weapons in our lifetime. But we didn't use them, the current operation Anaconda would be a perfect use for Tact Nukes. A small confinded area, mountainous region, surface blasts not air blasts to limit the radiation coverage area. But we aren't going to use them there either. Nukes are a weapon of total war and will be used IF and only IF they are used against the USA, or another weapon of mass destuction is used.
Here is a site about Nukes
http://www.nukefix.org/weapon.html
From what I could tell in a quick scan of the page if the average nuke hit downtown Barre, air blast at 3,000 ft. Norwich would have it windows knocked out, you'd get a sunburn, and you wouldn't want to look at the blast.
(couldn't remember how far Middlebury is from Barre)
If I remember correctly in order to double the blast radius you have quadripble the yield size. ie: (example ONLY) .5 mile radius=20kt, 1 mile radius=80kt, 2 mile radius=320 kt, 4 mile radius=1.28 mt.
If you live in a big city, well you have about 18-25 minutes of warning time to get the "hell out of Dodge".
Thank God I'm a country boy
Don't get me wrong nukes are extremely destructive, but they are NOT the end of the world.