Yield of the tactical nukes in Orge

[TexPoec]

Originally Posted by cephalopagus

if it is possible they would have developed hafnium triggered weapons so it would be larger than any chemical ordinance but smaller than any nuke and it wouldn't have all of that nasty fallout.

That is exactly right. The nukes in Ogre use "exotic fissionables" and have very low radiation emissions. They are precision weapons that focus their energy down into the target, detonating 30 meters above. Yes, there is blast damage and radiation nearby, but not as much as if they were conventional nukes that distributed their energy equally in all direction.

Cruise missiles are more like conventional nukes... I think.

[Atomic Kennedy]

If you look at On Thermonuclear War by Hermann Kahn, you'll see mention of "Californium Bullets," which, in he 1950s, they imagined might be possible by the 1980s, if they could slow down halflife decay by some means. Some kind of exotic fissionable material like Tex mentions, capable of detonating with a much smaller critical mass would make a tactical battlefield like Ogre possible, but all those neutrons bouncing around, not to speak of EMP and gamma radiation, would basically fry the planet by a bazillion paper cuts.