The consequences of one nuclear bomb smuggled into a port in a container

Published 21 August 2006

A RAND study says that a 10-kiloton nuclear explosion at the Port of Long Beach could kill 60,000 people instantly, expose 150,000 more to hazardous radiation, and cause ten times more economic loss than the 9/11 terrorist attacks

A RAND Corporation study concluded that a nuclear explosion at the Port of Long Beach, California, could kill 60,000 people instantly, expose 150,000 more to hazardous radiation, and cause ten times more economic loss than the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The Santa Monica, California-based think-tank’s study examines the human casualties and infrastructure effects of terrorists detonating a 10-kiloton nuclear bomb in a shipping container after being unloaded onto a pier in Long Beach, which shares a waterway with the Port of Los Angeles.

RAND released the findings following a bomb scare at the Port of Seattle earlier this week: A bomb-sniffing dog mistakenly indicated that textiles inside the containers could contain explosives.

Southern California ports did not wait for the chilling RAND study to tighten security. Last September the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles received the second- and third-largest grants, $12.7 million and $11.4 million, respectively, from DHS. Efforts are under way to design new technology into a command center at the Port of Long Beach. It will give port officials better means to inspect suspicious cargo and communicate with the Port of Los Angeles and Coast Guard. The project goes out for bids toward the end of the year. The Port of Long Beach has also begun installing gamma ray scanning systems. Security experts say that if cost issues are solved, then one of the more reliable solutions would be for shipping operators to install radiological and biochemical sensors inside the containers.

Nearly four million cargo containers, averaging 40-feet long, go through the Port of Long Beach annually.

Some technology experts think checking for explosives, especially nuclear explosives, inside a container once it reaches U.S. soil is too late. If a nuclear bomb makes it, say, to New York harbor, it may well be too late to do much about it.

-read more in this Charles Meade’s and Roger Molander’s RAND report