EMP ? Seems No One Believes it except for the Korean fat boy

[Palladin]

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/in...o_longer_assess_nuke_threat_to_power_grid?utm

 

[mclina]

Departing commissioners, who served without pay, include a former Pentagon director of defense research, a former Department of Energy chief operating officer and a former director of the National Reconnaissance Office. The commission also had six professional staffers and a support contractor, Strategic Analysis Inc.

Yeah, this sounds like it was costing us a fortune...

 

[Palladin]

https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Baker-Statement-5-13-EMP.pdf

https://pjmedia.com/trending/2017/06/06/emp-commission-chair-warns-on-north-korean-emp/

 

[Kevin_NH]

Yes, the commissioners served without "pay", but that doesn't equal zero cost to US

There's so much FUD around EMP in the mass media and fringe websites that it's not worth even clicking the links anymore.

William Graham, the 16-year chairman of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack, said he is worried about the nation’s ability to develop defenses against the threat of a high-altitude nuclear blast shutting down the U.S. power grid. “I’m concerned that the country is going to lose both the experience and the knowledge that the commissioners have brought (and) also the knowledge and support of extremely competent professional staff,” ... The commission’s website was taken down over the weekend. Departing commissioners, who served without pay, include a former Pentagon director of defense research, a former Department of Energy chief operating officer and a former director of the National Reconnaissance Office. The commission also had six professional staffers and a support contractor,

Must be a nice gig, spending decades as staff/support for a committee to "assess" a threat that may never actually materialize.

Yes, the commissioners served without pay, but what kind of expense budget did they get?

 

[HorizontalHunter]

Yes, the commissioners served without pay, but what kind of expense budget did they get?

I think that they got to use Pelosi's open bar jet after they took it away from her.

Bob

 

[DrBurnsides]

Soo.. Lightning arrestors in the house? I don't see varistors sucking up that much juice.

 

[Varmint]

I'm not buying the "single nuke in upper atmosphere will shut down the grid." I think that'd only work in a sci-fi movie.

 

[Kevin_NH]

I'm not buying the "single nuke in upper atmosphere will shut down the grid." I think that'd only work in a sci-fi movie.

Probably, but spreading doom-and-gloom FUD is a lot more fun and profitable.

Last month, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) released the first in a series of reports from a study looking at the potential effects of a single high-altitude electromagnetic pulse. The study concentrated on the fleet of 37,000 bulk power transformers in the continental U.S.

Such large transformers, commonly seen in substations, are greater than 69,000 volts and convert electricity from high-voltage electricity to levels that are distributed around neighborhoods.

“We found that there would likely be some failures, but those failures are relatively small in nature and not in the hundreds as had been contemplated from some of the reports in the past,” EPRI’s Manning said.

Nearly all claims about the death toll from EMP trace back to the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from EMP Attack, mostly via the highly popular science fiction novel, One Second After; prior to that novel, the closest the author came to science writing was a screenplay for Star Trek.

 

[Win]

I'm not buying the "single nuke in upper atmosphere will shut down the grid." I think that'd only work in a sci-fi movie.

The existence of this electromagnetic pulse has been known since the 1940’s.It was when the nuclear weapons were being developed and tested.However, the effects of an EMP bomb were not fully known until 1962 because of lack of data. At that time, the United States was conducting a series of high-altitude atmospheric tests named "Fishbowl” .The nuclear weapons designers ignited hydrogen bombs over the Pacific Ocean. The detonations created bursts of gamma rays. The gamma rays strike the oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere, released electrons that spread for hundreds of miles. As a result, street lights in Hawaii were blown out and radio navigation was disrupted for 18 hours, as far away as Australia. Then, the United States start to learn how to "harden" electronics against this electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and develop EMP weapons.

http://empbomb.blogspot.com/2008/10/history.html
I heard about this event in a documentary some time ago. There is a lot of speculation about the extent of damage from an EMP but there is some real evidence of at least some damage.

 

[MaverickNH]

http://tedkoppellightsout.com/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/mone...power-execs-push-back-koppel-claims/85358254/

Seems like an EMP is not the least of our worries, but certainly one of our worries.

 

[JayMcB]

What could go wrong?

It's not like there's any historical precedent.....and electronics have been made so much more robust and less solid state in the ensuing 55 years

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_Prime

 

[enbloc]

Lol. A Korean Fatboy...

 

[kevin9]

EMP is a real concern. Just read about the results some of the early nuclear tests, like Starfish Prime which took out Hawaiian streetlights and telecom equipment ~900 miles away and eventually crippled 1/3 of satellites then in low earth orbit, and Soviet Project K tests that destroyed telephone lines, power lines and a power plant. I'm all for the idea of having a commission to study the issue, but 17 years is about 10 times as long as it should take to do the work and report the results.

 

[Junior314]

IMO EMP/Solar Flare is the most realistic to happen SHTF scenario.

Our electronics and grid are not hardened for this type of scenario.