Dictionary

kilotonnage en · NOUN

Etymology

From kilo- + tonnage.

Meanings

1. The destructive power of an explosive, measured in kilotons.
   • Nuclear tests were nationally televised, and data on systems, kilotonnages, and weapons were published by major American newspapers. 2014, Robert A. Pape, Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War:
   • The regions contaminated by local fallout depend critically on local weather conditions, particularly wind, and cannot be accurately predicted, but the total areas are roughly proportional to the size (kilotonnage) of the fission part of the bomb. 1967, Patricia Joyce Lindop, A Poor Man's Guide to Nuclear Weapons, page 8:
   • In addition, the intense study of the nuclear winter phenomenon now going on in both the United States and the Soviet Union may push the arms competition further into lighter, low-kilotonnage weapons. 1985 March 14, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, page 32:

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