Will There be a Nuclear Attack on NYC This Week?

The Internet is buzzing with predictions of a “false flag” nuclear attack on New York City on September 23, 2015.

We don’t know if a nuclear attack is going to happen next week. But if you think New York City may get nuked in the near future, you’re in good company. So does President Obama.

Last year the President caused an uproar when he identified a nuclear attack as the number one national security threat to the United States.

“I continue to be much more concerned when it comes to our security with the prospect of a nuclear weapon going off in Manhattan,” he said.

But for some reason no one has ever explained, the very next day the Department of Homeland Security announced massive budget cuts to the NYPD’s nuclear bomb detection program.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) was outraged.

“Yesterday, the president correctly says he worried about a nuclear weapon, and yet the Department of Homeland Security announces it is cutting this program which is one of our bulwarks to prevent any nuclear weapon from being smuggled into Manhattan.”

And then Former Police Commissioner Ray Kelly went on the record. He said the threat of a nuclear attack on New York City is very real. He also agreed that the NYPD needs a robust nuclear detection program.

“I don’t think we should sugarcoat the threat. We’ve had 16 bomb plots against the city since September 11, (2001),” he said. “This is where they want to come. It’s seen as the cultural capital — the economic capital of the world — and we’re at risk.”

Other high officials have also sounded a warning about a nuclear attack on New York City. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said terrorists continue to target the Big Apple. “Perhaps the most likely threat is from a suitcase nuclear weapon in a rusty car on a dock in New York City.”

Harvard scholar Graham Allison is the director of Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and the author of “Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe.” He estimates that there is greater than a 50% likelihood of terrorists successfully carrying out a nuclear attack in the next decade. Mr. Allison says a nuclear attack could kill upward of 500,000 people.

Former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov has acknowledged that terrorists are trying to buy or build a nuke. “Of particular concern are efforts by international terrorists to get their hands on nuclear weapons. Most dangerous of all in this regard is the black market in nuclear materials, technology and expertise.”

Since 2007, the DHS has funded more than $118 million for a nuclear detection program called “Securing the Cities”. The program is run by the NYPD and includes a network of stationary and mobile sensors that can detect unusual radiation as far as 150 miles from midtown Manhattan.

But once the program was expanded to Los Angeles, New York City’s share of the funding dropped. In his 2015 budget proposal, President Obama called for cutting the program to $12 million a year from $22 million.

Most experts believe that a small nuclear bomb could be hidden in a van, truck or ocean shipping container. Powerful nukes were first miniaturized in the 1950s when the U.S. made a “backpack nuke”. The bomb, officially called a Special Atomic Demolition Munition, was small enough that one person could lug it on his back.

Of course, a larger bomb would do more damage. A 12.5 kiloton bomb smuggled into the port of New York aboard a shipping container and detonated at ground level would end up killing about 260,000 people. Some would die immediately from the explosion, while the rest would die from radiation exposure and nuclear fallout. Hundreds of thousands more would get radiation sickness and suffer long-term health effects.

So, if you are one of the 2.5 people in Manhattan when the bomb explodes, you will have a 1-in-4 chance of dying or getting seriously ill.

Click here to find out how a small group of terrorists could make a Hiroshima-grade bomb from highly enriched uranium.

What would happen if terrorists were able to carry out a nuclear attack with a bigger nuke – a 150 kiloton bomb? Under this scenario, the nuke is detonated in the heart of Manhattan at the foot of the Empire State Building. The bomb goes off without warning at noon time. It’s a clear spring day with a breeze to the east. The Atomic Archive has the answer here.

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