Are U.S. Ports Open To Nuclear Attack?

(CBS)  To a country now focused on the threat of "liquid" terror in the sky, Wednesday's bomb scare at the port of Seattle was just a brief blip on the radar.

But what turned out to be a false alarm was eerily similar to a nightmare scenario outlined by the Rand Corporation, a security think tank.

The Rand study explored what might happen if a 10-kiloton nuclear bomb – the size of the one dropped on Hiroshima – was hidden by terrorists in a cargo container and detonated at the port of Long Beach, Calif.

"Sixty thousand people probably would be killed in the immediacy of the blast or would die from severe radiation sickness," Rand's Michael Wermuth said.

The nearby port of Los Angeles would also be destroyed. Almost 200,000 people could be exposed to deadly radiation while 2 to 3 million southern Californians could be forced to relocate.

"We made it clear that we do not think this is the next likely attack," Wermuth said.

But the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles are tempting economic targets. More cargo moves through these two ports than nearly every other major U.S. port combined.

Finding a bomb here would be like finding a nuclear needle in a haystack.

Customs officials at both ports scan every container for radiation before it heads out into the community. Some are checked using handheld sensors, while others are x-rayed using special trucks.

Richard Steinke, the executive director of the Port of Long Beach, said, "We're a lot safer than we were pre-9/11."

The head of the Department of Homeland Security acknowledged all the security efforts are still not enough.

"The real answer is to go overseas," Sec. Michael Chertoff said. "Because ideally we don't want the container with the nuclear device to even get on the ship that's coming to the U.S."

Rand officials stress their dark scenario was not meant to scare people, but to get them thinking about what will happen in the days, weeks, even years after a catastrophic event.

Economist Jack Kyser points out a nuclear attack could send the insurance, real estate and financial markets into tailspin.

"Los Angeles doesn't just make movies, it is an international business center," said Jack Kyser of the L.A. County Economic Development Corporation. "There would be ramification all the way around the world."

Besides the loss in human life, it's estimated the initial cost of nuclear port attack could hit a trillion dollars – that's more than 10 times worse than September 11.