Posted on 08/01/2015 11:09:02 AM PDT by TXnMA
Thanks silverleaf and Steely Tom!
The article mentions (but does not expand upon) the use of “filters” on some portion of the grid. Since wires (transmission) are just wires I can’t see how EMP could have any direct effect on wires. This would leave generation or load as the features to be protected. I have heard of EMP protection when the context was load (commercial and residential electronics and appliances) and not really the grid at all. I’ve also read about EMP and the grid where what they were the context was operations and control.
I have yet to read of any specific part of generation or transmission vulnerabilities.
Here is a link to the full Wall Street Journal article from May of this year (2015) on the EMP threat:
http://reliableelectricgrid.org/the-threat-to-melt-the-electric-grid/
Here is the key part of the article. This is scary stuff. From the quote below, the Cheyenne Mountain move will not be finished until 2020. Iran will almost certainly have nukes by then unless Israel goes to war with them with nuclear weapons. And of course, it does not matter if the military survives the EMP since they will be unable to help if the national power grid goes down. They may be able to turn Iran and North Korea into glass but all the rest of us will be dead.
The primary headquarters for Norad, which provides early warning and command and control for the defense of the U.S. against nuclear attack, has for a decade been at nearby Peterson Air Force Base. Critical Norad operations are being moved back into Cheyenne Mountain, and the Pentagon recently awarded a $700 million contract to Raytheon to upgrade electronics through 2020.
At an April 7 Pentagon news conference, Norad Commander Adm. William Gortney noted that Norad is going back underground “because of the very nature of the way that Cheyenne Mountain’s built. It’s EMP-hardened.” He explained that North Korea now has mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles, the KN-08, armed with nuclear warheads, that can strike the U.S. While the KN-08 is inaccurate, it could be used to launch a high-altitude nuclear EMP attack.
Adm. Gortney reassured those at the news conference that the U.S. can defend itself from a nuclear-missile threat from North Korea—or from Iran “if we get our assessment wrong,” he said, referring to the current nuclear negotiations. U.S. missile defense, he said, is “able to defend the nation against both those particular threats today.”
That is true as far as it goes—but only if an attack on the U.S. comes from the northern skies. Former senior Reagan administration officials warn that the U.S. is unprepared to cope with nuclear EMP strikes from North Korea and Iran if their missiles’ trajectory takes a southern route.
Does it kill people?
People will die of lack of water, starvation, diseases. It will be the greatest catastrophe of all time to hit this nation and the world in terms of the number of people who will die.
Is it time for this foolish paranoia again already?! I guess it’s been a while. I know people LOVE to get all worried but out here in reality it is quite simply NOT going to happen. The “big” EMP burst taking out the country scenario that the doom criers like to talk about requires you to get a device higher up than the ESS, just isn’t going to happen. And if somebody has got multiple bombs we’ve got much bigger problems than the EMP. This is, quite simply, silly.
Think of all the poor kids who couldn’t get their facebook and twitter fixes if the cell networks went down. It would be horrible.
As with most doomsday scenarios I am skeptical.
Ok thanks now that makes sense
Then you haven’t looked.
Next Saturday I will be hosting another radio show on WBEN, Buffalo. My guest will be 2 experts in the field and we will cover how to protect the grid. Something congress and the power companies have refused to do.
who ya gonna send the order to and how are they gonna build?
China? Iran?
LOL!
Iran will use an EMP bomb against us first chance they get... They project their own evil onto others... if they're working on a defense it's because it's what they plan on doing.
Control systems, local and remote, are solid state.
Why not simply duplicate all the big transformers and station the across the nation in secured underground metal lined ‘Faraday’ vaults for future use.
“Iranian researchers...have built an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) filter that protects country’s vital organizations against cyber attack”
This is gibberish. There is no “EMP Filter” that protects organizations, per se. A filter on any incoming grid power is generally part of any facility hardening, but it’s not the only thing one needs to do. An “EMP Filter” would not be part of “cyber protection”.
“US could significantly reduce the national exposure to an EMP by putting AC-DC-AC converters on high power lines where they cross state boundaries.”
That would make vulnerabilities worse.
“EMP can be big business. This is just a business stunt like the Ozone Hole was and Globull Warming is.”
It could be. That’s what the EEI (utility lobbyists) claim, and they aren’t totally incorrect.
However, EMP IS a significant problem. We simply don’t know how significant it will be. So utilities DO have a point - there is insufficient guidance on “what to do” with utility hardening. Many are taking significant steps.
It is not possible to “shield the grid” but it is possible to prioritize and target specific vulnerable areas so that you would minimize downtime. There is no simple answer or action that will “protect the grid”.
Don't know what you're smoking, but put it down, let the air (and your head) clear -- and RTFA.
Not every threat can be dismissed as a "money-hungry capitalist business conspiracy" -- as you see things. Drop your simple-minded conspiracy theories and face the real world -- where physics rules!
As I posted above, the effect is real; I observed it first-hand. A single nuke detonation at the right altitude and over the right coordinates would effectively destroy this nation's electrical / electronic infrastructure. This is not new news; how long ago was it that we tested nukes over the Pacific?
And, there are existing, mature non-nuclear weapons systems that could have similar effects across a somewhat smaller area. (The effect can be demonstrated with parts from a microwave oven...)
What's changed is that some awfully nasty folks now (or soon will) have the capability to bring our technological society to a full halt; and they already have demonstrated the will to do so.
~~~~~~~~~~
Keep on as you are; you'll never figure out why your "code"stopped working...
” out here in reality it is quite simply NOT going to happen”
It actually might happen, and with nuclear proliferation is getting more likely every day. A widespread EMP requires a detonation at some altitude in the vicinity of 50km (more or less) this is not outside of the realm of, for instance, Iran - what Iran has not (yet) done is miniaturize a warhead that can be carried by one of it’s launchers. They’ve been working with N. Korea - and presumably have a decent chance of creating a working warhead (Kerry’s heroic application of the “Obama Surrender Strategy” over Iran notwithstanding).
If it happens we know it will do something likely significant - we don’t know exactly how significant. Complex systems - like telecom, power, water, sewer are likely to be impacted - go down - but how long to get them back running is a subject of great interest.
The military takes this very seriously. They are making efforts to be able to continue operations without the civilian grid.
It’s certainly not silly. It’s a threat - we have lots of them, it is one that must be considered.
The “big” EMP burst taking out the country scenario that the doom criers like to talk about requires you to get a device higher up than the ESS, just isn’t going to happen.
That’s more than enough to take out the whole Northeast corridor from Boston to Washington DC.
Plus the power grid is tightly interconnected so a surge in the Northeast could easily take out the eastern half of the US. IIRC a glitch somewhere in Ohio took out the whole northeast.
A similar shot could take out all of California and the West Coast. So all it takes is two scuds or similar missiles that both the Iranians and North Koreans can easily lay their hands on. Not to mention the Chinese or Russians can easily supply them with all it takes and keep plausible deniability.
I think you are whistling past the graveyard.
“Iran will use an EMP bomb against us first chance they get”
I would guess they’d attack Israel first.
Thanks! Is WBEN accessible via the internet?
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