toastedfox, you got it right on the money there. The whole nuclear holocaust thing is in fact inflated on purpose, whole world extinction, etc. The potential is there but in reality it would be less than anticipated. Radiation is based on half-life, the fallout that is dropped downwind is proportional to distance from the blast. If it was further than say 100 miles away, we would stand an excellent fighting chance, especially if adequate steps were taken as I mentioned above. Missiles would most likely not be used to deliver a nuclear payload and this is why; as soon as a launch is detected anywhere in the world, satellites will immediately track this. If those missiles were launched from known nuclear silos, code red procedures would immediately go into effect. The intended target would be established as well as the point of origin. Other world superpowers understand that such action would naturally warrant a counter-attack of equal or great proportions, mutually assured destruction. This is where the dangerous part comes into play. Russia's nuclear arsenals are rusting away from the cold war days, those missiles are being dismantled. You can rest assured that people are interested in this. In other country's things are run differently, they may not be so critical on paperwork. Truckloads of humans are transported from mexico probably daily, it could just as easily be a nuclear device. A nuclear device of this sort obviously cannot be the size of an intercontinental ballistic missile. It would have to be condensed down into a more sizeable form ie "suitcase" bombs. These devices could simply go off without warning and wreak havok. Determining the origin of the enemy would be a huge problem for intelligence until someone put out a grainy video of some terrorist group reading a statement, and that would be all we have. With such a scenario I just described there would be far far more panic and social collapse than damage from the device itself. Nukes delivered by terrorists would be smaller in power, destruction, and number of devices detonated. We could probably expect the number to be less than 10. If there were less than 10 nuclear detonations in the united states, very few people would die of radiation in comparison to the number who would live with little to no ill radiation effects. As time passes after the detonations, the radius of non-habitable, dangerous zones will continue to shrink. Today the former site of cheryinoble? is now flourishing with life. The nearby towns were evacuated and never repopulated. Nature has know virtually taken back over the towns and vegetation covers almost everything. Life will go on past a nuclear disaster, as long as people are informed and prepared they will too.