Just to set the expectations: the size of the asteroids they considered was around 100 to 200 meters. The nuke they envisioned was a 1 megaton one, which is basically the yield of the largest active nuke in the US inventory (B83 = 1.2 megatons).
For comparison the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs was 10 to 15 kilometers wide. Since volume goes with the cube of the diameter, it follows that that asteroid was about one million times larger than the asteroids being studied here. The largest nuke ever tested was 50 MT, and the Soviets intentionally dialed it down from its designed 100 MT yield. Even that one would have been just a pinprick for the dinosaur-killer asteroid.
For comparison the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs was 10 to 15 kilometers wide. Since volume goes with the cube of the diameter, it follows that that asteroid was about one million times larger than the asteroids being studied here. The largest nuke ever tested was 50 MT, and the Soviets intentionally dialed it down from its designed 100 MT yield. Even that one would have been just a pinprick for the dinosaur-killer asteroid.