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As Worries Over the Power Grid Rise, a Drill Will Simulate a Knockout Blow
NYT ^ | 16 AUG 2013 | MATTHEW L. WALD

Posted on 08/21/2013 5:41:40 AM PDT by Old Sarge

WASHINGTON — The electric grid, as government and private experts describe it, is the glass jaw of American industry. If an adversary lands a knockout blow, they fear, it could black out vast areas of the continent for weeks; interrupt supplies of water, gasoline, diesel fuel and fresh food; shut down communications; and create disruptions of a scale that was only hinted at by Hurricane Sandy and the attacks of Sept. 11.

~ SNIP ~

One goal of the drill, called "GridEx II", is to explore how governments would react as the loss of the grid crippled the supply chain for everyday necessities.

~ SNIP ~

Most of the participants will join the exercise from their workplaces, with NERC, in Washington, announcing successive failures. One example, organizers say, is a substation break-in that officials initially think is an attempt to steal copper. But instead, the intruder uses a USB drive to upload a virus into a computer network.

The drill is part of a give-and-take in the past few years between the government and utilities that has exposed the difficulties of securing the electric system.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: electricity; energy; fedzilla; govtabuse; grid; griddown; griddrill; gridexii; prepper; preppers; scandals
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Read more at The Old Gray Whore.
1 posted on 08/21/2013 5:41:40 AM PDT by Old Sarge
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To: Kartographer; blam; ChocChipCookie; Marcella; Bride Of Old Sarge; yorkiemom; VermiciousKnid; ...

I’m pinging a combined Prepper/Threat Matrix list.

According to my read of the article, this is a simulation, like a military CPX, and these 150 companies will not be physically shutting off the grid.

But who knows what they’ll feel empowered to do...


2 posted on 08/21/2013 5:44:13 AM PDT by Old Sarge (Opinions are like orgasms: only mine count, and I couldn't care less if you have one...)
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To: Old Sarge

After 4 days without power - most large American cities would be in the MadMax Zone...


3 posted on 08/21/2013 5:46:33 AM PDT by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)
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To: appalachian_dweller; OldPossum; DuncanWaring; VirginiaMom; CodeToad; goosie; kalee; ...

Preppers’ PING!!


4 posted on 08/21/2013 5:49:26 AM PDT by Kartographer ("We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.")
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To: Old Sarge

So good of the Times to bring this to everyone’s attention.


5 posted on 08/21/2013 5:52:50 AM PDT by outofsalt ("If History teaches us anything it's that history rarely teaches us anything")
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To: Old Sarge

Osama Obama picked the perfect time to declare his “war on coal”,the fuel responsible for almost half the electricity generated in this country.


6 posted on 08/21/2013 5:53:19 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (If Obama Had A City It Would Look Like Detroit)
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To: Old Sarge

The first priority would be to ensure that the NSA could spy on the survivors.


7 posted on 08/21/2013 5:59:59 AM PDT by Ford4000
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To: Old Sarge

Sarge —

the NYT almost gets it right but doesn’t. See the excerpt below:

“protect equipment against an electromagnetic pulse, which could come from solar activity or be caused by small nuclear weapons exploded at low altitude, frying crucial components.

An attack using an electromagnetic pulse is laid out in extensive detail in the novel “One Second After,” published in 2009 and endorsed by Newt Gingrich. In another novel, “Gridlock,” published this summer and co-written by Byron L. Dorgan, the former senator from North Dakota, a rogue Russian agent working for Venezuela and Iran helps hackers threaten the grid. In the preface, Mr. Dorgan says such an attack could cause 10,000 times as much devastation as the terrorists’ strikes on Sept. 11, 2001.”

The article speaks of a nuclear detonation at *low* altitudes generating EMP that damages the grid. Wrong mostly, but right (see SREMP below). HIGH altitude 40+ KM is the best method. The bad guys have to get it up there, but the most modeled EMP attack is high altitude.

Refer to this article http://www.fas.org/nuke/intro/nuke/emp.htm and how the most damaging pulse - the HEMP - is generated via the Compton effect induced by a high-altitude burst. A low altitude burst does indeed produce a powerful EMP, called Source Region Electro-magnetic Pulse [SREMP], which is powerful locally, but the extent and permanence of the damage pales in comparison to a high altitude 40 - 40 KM) HEMP.

There are two pulses generated (some prefer to describe 3 pulses, E1-3, but E2 is akin to lightning in its effects and is not anticipated to act as a killer pulse) by nuclear EMP - the HEMP is VERY short duration, with nanosecond rises in voltage/induced current, and lasts about a millisecond. THIS (E1) is what fries the digital circuits of the modern era. The second pulse (E3) is longer duration and induces powerful voltages/currents in the long ‘antennae’ of the power grid, rail lines, etc. Together the two are electronically and even physically disabling to electronic and electrical infrastructure.

Furthermore, solar wind EMPs should only generate the ‘long wave’ EMP, (E3 and perhaps some E2) and pose little threat to any unplugged and moderately shielded electrical/electronic gizmos. One can easily protect your stuff from a solar storm EMP, and we should have days if not plenty of hours to prepare.

One Second After is of course more of a SOCIAL essay/novel - ‘lord of the Flies’ in the 21st century on a large scale. Gridlock is more about thwarting a different attack vector. The outcome is the same — a failure of civility within 9 days.

See also http://www.fas.org/nuke/intro/nuke/emp/toc.htm
http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/mctl98-2/p2sec06.pdf
http://empcommission.org/
http://www.futurescience.com/X5DNA/X5DNA.html


8 posted on 08/21/2013 6:25:00 AM PDT by Blueflag (Res ipsa loquitur: non vehere est inermus)
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To: Blueflag

9 posted on 08/21/2013 6:34:42 AM PDT by Old Sarge (Opinions are like orgasms: only mine count, and I couldn't care less if you have one...)
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To: Old Sarge

Too few people know the extent of the problem.


10 posted on 08/21/2013 6:38:59 AM PDT by Excellence (All your database are belong to us.)
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To: Excellence

“Too few people know the extent of the problem.”

Lisa Murkowski, the left leaning Republican Senator from Alaska understands it fully. She killed the effort in Congress to harden the power grid against EMP attack.

http://www.newsmax.com/KenTimmerman/lisa-murkowski-emp-energy/2010/10/14/id/373768


11 posted on 08/21/2013 7:12:54 AM PDT by Soul of the South (Yesterday is gone. Today will be what we make of it.)
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To: Blueflag

The higher you go, the less damage is done. It would take large numbers of these EMP’s to knock out the grid. The Soviet Union tested it on their own people.

Terrorists hitting power substations or embedded viruses is more likely. California is particularly vulnerable.


12 posted on 08/21/2013 7:18:43 AM PDT by AppyPappy (Obama: What did I not know and when did I not know it?)
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To: Old Sarge

ping


13 posted on 08/21/2013 7:25:38 AM PDT by immadashell (The inmates are running the asylum.)
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To: 2banana
"After 4 days without power - most large American cities would be in the MadMax Zone"

Optimist. I give it one night. However, the Washington D.C. metro region was severely affected by last summer's massive storm, that knocked out power for many suburban neighborhoods for weeks. Nobody chimped out because of the isolation imposed by downed trees, and it was simply too hot to even breathe. 102 degrees at 90% humidity, and the air dead still, for the duration of the power outage. An urban environment would be a different story. Chimp city after 24 hours.
14 posted on 08/21/2013 7:27:29 AM PDT by PowderMonkey (WILL WORK FOR AMMO)
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To: Blueflag

You are right. The higher the nuclear blast happens, the wider is the area affected and it doesn’t take a massive nuclear blast for it to happen.


15 posted on 08/21/2013 7:34:36 AM PDT by Marcella ((Prepping can save your life today. I am a Christian, not a Muslim.))
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To: Old Sarge; MestaMachine; thouworm; maggief; Myrddin; shibumi; Hardraade; Candor7; ...
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As Worries Over the Power Grid Rise, a Drill Will Simulate a Knockout Blow

From the article:

utility workers, business executives, National Guard officers, F.B.I. antiterrorism experts and officials from government agencies in the United States, Canada and Mexico are preparing for an emergency drill in November that will..."

Thanks, Old Sarge.

16 posted on 08/21/2013 7:46:16 AM PDT by LucyT (In politics, "Lack of Money" speaks louder than words. Stop donating to RINOs.)
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To: Old Sarge

We have a whole house generator installed with enough propane for about a month.....tested it out during Hurricane Sandy. Also have a backup generator which runs on gas.


17 posted on 08/21/2013 7:47:23 AM PDT by Red in Blue PA (When Injustice becomes Law, Resistance Becomes Duty.-Thomas Jefferson)
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Check out # 11.

18 posted on 08/21/2013 7:48:52 AM PDT by LucyT (In politics, "Lack of Money" speaks louder than words. Stop donating to RINOs.)
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To: 2banana

Congressional staffers will get a waiver from it.


19 posted on 08/21/2013 7:52:56 AM PDT by TurboZamboni (Marx smelled bad & lived with his parents most his life.)
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To: immadashell

Pong


20 posted on 08/21/2013 7:58:17 AM PDT by Old Sarge (Opinions are like orgasms: only mine count, and I couldn't care less if you have one...)
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