[palmer]

Would it be possible for ONE POWER STATION to be the official "match' to get the grid up and running in the event of an EMP attack? That station would have very large transformers on site - wrapped in chicken wire... and they'd have the means to start up their generators?

Nuclear blasts have E1, E2 and E3 components. They will vary depending on the device. The high frequency E1 pulses can damage the electronics including the power control systems. E2 are not really relevant. E3 are low frequency, less than 1 Hz, and picked up by long power lines like those from a solar storm. The protection of, and replacement of components from the E1 pulse is relatively simple, some shielding, some surge protection and lots of available replacements with a week or so of work.

The E3 is really the only thing to worry about since the blown transformers can't be quickly replaced. They can't be shielded, not by chicken wire or anything else because it is essentially DC and shields only work on AC.

The good news is that the E3 component will be small because the Nork bombs are small. E3 is created by the ionized fireball displacing the magnetic field. The ionized fireball won't be very large in the Nork's 30 kt bomb. Russia's 300 kt test 184 (1300 nT/min) was the best example, with some major grid damage but localized. A blast producing 5000 nT/min would leave 40% of the US without electrical power for 4-10 years, see http://www.futurescience.com/emp/test184.html

The Norks would need 30 times the yield and perfect device design to do that.

[GOPJ]

A core damage accident is caused by the loss of sufficient cooling for the nuclear fuel within the reactor core. The reason may be one of several factors, including a loss-of-pressure-control accident, a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA), an uncontrolled power excursion or, in reactors without a pressure vessel, a fire within the reactor core. Failures in control systems may cause a series of events resulting in loss of cooling. Contemporary safety principles of defense in depth ensure that multiple layers of safety systems are always present to make such accidents unlikely.

In a loss-of-coolant accident, either the physical loss of coolant (which is typically deionized water, an inert gas, NaK, or liquid sodium) or the loss of a method to ensure a sufficient flow rate of the coolant occurs. A loss-of-coolant accident and a loss-of-pressure-control accident are closely related in some reactors.

Failure of the Emergency Core Cooling System (ECCS).

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

First question: without power to run 'cooling systems' how long until Nuclear Power Plants go into meltdown? (Generators will work for what? 90 days?) -------------------------------------

http://www.futurescience.com/emp/test184.html

In the city of Karaganda, the EMP started a fire in the city's electrical power plant, which was connected to the long underground power line. The shielded electrical cable was buried 3 feet (90 cm.) underground. The geomagnetic-storm-like E3 component of the EMP (also called MHD-EMP) can easily penetrate into the ground. The E3 component of the Test It is likely that, as in most industrialized countries of the era, the rails were 20-meter long sections connected by fishplates (also called joint bars). This type of rail connection would have limited the current levels that would have been induced by the EMP, since the fishplates, and especially the attachments to the fishplates, would not be very good electrical conductors for high currents (as compared to the rails). Modern welded rails would provide much better long conductors of large electrical currents. The voltages on long conductors generated by severe solar storms or the E3 component of nuclear EMP is generally in the range of 5 to 30 volts per mile, so extremely large currents could be induced in welded rails that are hundreds of miles long.

Would maglev trains be electrified?

Scientific reports have stated that currents of several hundred amperes can be induced in long underground or above-ground metal pipelines.

Would underground pipelines catch on fire?

Just curious Palmer - thought you might know... Thanks.