Posted on 09/09/2009 8:34:08 AM PDT by Fennie
The federal government is doing "nothing" to protect against an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack that could wipe out American civilization, Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, a leading expert on the subject, tells Newsmax.
For only $200 million to $400 million, the government could protect a key element of the power grid to keep electrical power from being wiped out for years, according to Dr. Pry, a former staff member of the congressional Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack.
Yet neither Republicans nor Democrats have been willing to spend that small sum, says Pry, who is president EMPACT America, which is meeting in Niagara Falls, N.Y. this week to spotlight the scandal.
A single nuclear bomb exploded over the Midwest would generate an electromagnetic pulse that would destroy the chips that are the heart of every electronic device. While military and intelligence networks may be shielded against EMP, most of the rest of the country's technological infrastructure is not.
An EMP attack would wipe out personal computers and the internet. Cars would not start, gasoline pumps would not work, and airplanes could not take off.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
http://www.osti.gov/energycitations/product.biblio.jsp?osti_id=6907033
Starfish was not very big, but it zapped power circuits in Hawai’i.
http://glasstone.blogspot.com/2006/03/emp-radiation-from-nuclear-space.html
The Soviets set up a test with a long telephone line, shielded underground power line, and high yield space shot. The story starts a little ways down from the top. They measured large currents, about 3000 Amps 30 microseconds post burst. This was much worse than the currents from Starfish. The amplifiers all along the line failed, and peak voltage was estimated at 300 KV or more based on arc tube discharges.
The underground power line also picked up significant current, and most equipment connected to it was damaged.
Russia popped two 300 KT devices at lower-than-optimum altitudes and caused military generators and mil power systems to fail due to EMP. There is not a lot of infrastructure in Khazakstan to notice much. “Ho! Yak-butter lamp went out!”
We have indeed seen significant EMP damage as verified by test. We have rarely detonated significant yield devices at the correct altitude, though. A ground-pounder produces source-region EMP but not the same type as High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP). So MIKE, IVY, and so forth did not produce HEMP. There were atmospheric tests in Nevada though that had radially-placed instrument cables melt from SREMP, a fairly local effect.
.......There isn’t enough gold in the world for every nation to return to the “gold standard”........
You are correct at the present value of things. But you are wrong if currencies are devalued lower than 0. There is of course plenty of gold to go round if the price rises by say a hundred fold. You must remember there is no basis now for the world economy except faith. Money as we know it is merely electronic blips on an electronic ledger.
BTW, as a psychologist . . . with way above average curiosity . . . and not as an affront . . . you may answer by FREEPMAIL if you wish . . .
I’m guessing you might have some of the following labels though I don’t have much to go on in that guess so I’m wondering how accurate or inaccurate my guess is.
How many of your closer relatives have ever accused you of being above average . . .
1. —stodgey
2. —rigid
3. —set in your ways
4. —strict
5. —cut and dried
6. —extremely orderly
7. —predictable
8. —regimented
9. —a by the book man
10. —obsessive compulsive
If it was in a book, it must be true.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32544.pdf
From the report:
"High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) is a near-instantaneous electromagnetic energy field that is produced in the atmosphere by the power and radiation of a nuclear explosion, and that is damaging to electronic equipment over a very wide area, depending on power of the nuclear device and altitude of the burst."
"HEMP is produced when a nuclear weapon is detonated high above the Earth’s surface, creating gamma-radiation that interacts with the atmosphere to create an instantaneous intense electromagnetic energy field that is harmless to people as it radiates outward, but which can overload computer circuitry with effects similar to, but causing damage much more swiftly than, a lightning strike.16 The effects of HEMP became fully known to the United States in 1962 during a high-altitude nuclear test (code named “Starfish Prime”) over the Pacific Ocean, when radio stations and electronic equipment were disrupted 800 miles away throughout parts of Hawaii. The HEMP effect can span thousands of miles, depending on the altitude and the design and power of the nuclear burst (a single device detonated at an appropriate altitude over Kansas reportedly could affect all of the continental United CRS-7 17 The Federation of American Scientists, “Nuclear Weapons EMP Effects,” [http://www.fas.org/nuke/intro/nuke/emp.htm]. States)17, and can be picked up by metallic conductors such as wires, or overhead power lines, acting as antennas that conduct the energy shockwave into the electronic systems of cars, airplanes, or communications equipment."
"To produce maximum coverage for the HEMP effect, a nuclear device must explode very high in the atmosphere, too far away from the earth’s surface to cause injury or damage directly from heat or blast. Also, HEMP produced by the nuclear explosion is instantaneous — too brief to start current flowing within a human body — so there is no effect on people."
I thought he was dead.
I don’t recall
asking, much less begging
you or anyone to like my style.
My style is what it is.
You are most welcome to ignore it. I seems to have it’s own filtering mechanism built-in.
Mostly, I enjoy it as it is and it commnicates as I want it to,
to quite a number of folks.
You are quite welcome to opt-out.
Line of sight, and effective range are not the same thing.
Personally,
i find prissy-ness about my style a LOT less attractive than my style. LOL.
Personally,
i find prissy-ness about my style a LOT less attractive than my style. LOL.
Foreward by Newt Gingrich attesting to the potential truth in the book (if it were to happen). The afterward of the book is by Captain Willaim Sanders, USN, who is an expert in the field.
One of the highest was at an altitude of 540 km (335.5 mi) and used to determine the effects of the blast and radiation in the exoatmospheric environment.
The U.S. program began in 1958, with the Teak and Orange shots, both 3.8 megatons. These warheads were initially carried on Redstone rockets. Later tests were delivered by Thor missiles for Operation Dominic I tests, and modified Lockheed X-17 missiles for the Argus tests.
The USSR also did lots of these kind of tests.
EMP devastation produced:
The strong electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that results has several components. In the first few tens of nanoseconds, about a tenth of a percent of the weapon yield appears as powerful gamma rays with energies of one to three mega-electron volts (MeV, a unit of energy). The gamma rays rain down into the atmosphere and collide with air molecules, depositing their energy to produce huge quantities of positive ions and recoil electrons (also known as Compton electrons). The impacts create MeV-energy Compton electrons that then accelerate and spiral along the earth's magnetic field lines. The resulting transient electric fields and currents that arise generate electromagnetic emissions in the radio frequency range of 15 to 250 megahertz (MHz, or one million cycles per second). This high-altitude EMP occurs between 30 and 50 kilometers above the earth's surface. The potential as an anti-satellite weapon became apparent in August 1958 during Hardtack Teak. The EMP observed at the Apia Observatory at Samoa was four times more powerful than any created by solar storms, while in July 1962 the Starfish Prime test damaged electronics in Honolulu and New Zealand (approximately 1,300 kilometers away), fused 300 street lights on Oahu (Hawaii), set off about 100 burglar alarms, and caused the failure of a microwave repeating station on Kauai, which cut off the sturdy telephone system from the other Hawaiian islands [1]. The radius for an effective satellite kill for the various prompt radiations produced by such a nuclear weapon in space was determined to be roughly 80 km. Further testing to this end was carried out, and embodied in a Department of Defense program, Program 437.
There are problems with nuclear weapons carried over to testing and deployment scenarios, however. Because of the very large radius associated with nuclear events, it was nearly impossible to prevent indiscriminate damage to other satellites, including one's own satellites. Starfish Prime produced an artificial radiation belt in space which soon destroyed three satellites (Ariel, TRAAC, and Transit 4B all failed after traversing the radiation belt, while Cosmos V, Injun I and Telstar suffered minor degradation, due to some radiation damage to solar cells, etc. [2]). The radiation dose rate was at least 60 rads/day at four months after Starfish for a well-shielded satellite or manned capsule in a polar circular earth orbit [3], which caused NASA concern with regard to its manned space exploration programs.
So, to cause the kind of emp that would be needed to destroy all electronics, over a specific area would have to be low enough that it would also kill everyone.
Higher detonations would knock out satellites, including their own.
Back in the 60's when we had the first big blackout in New York they had a difficult time getting the generators going because the motors were started with electricity. Apparently a coal power plant was found in up state New York that was able to provide the "match" to get the system running. I wonder if that's been taken into account?
There you go debunking things with facts. Way to take the fun out or a good panic.
Then again... I guess we still have to worry about several dozen 2 megaton warheads exploded 80 km up. Seems likely some random terrorist might be able to pull that off...
“Higher detonations would knock out satellites, including their own. “
Yup, so North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, would lose all their sats!
Wait...
........in CANADA, dude.... they LEGALIZED it.... wowwwww.... do you know the things you can MAKE out of hemp?????
When looking at the initial energy necessary for the pulse to be large enough to destroy a large portion of the grid, it is necessary to have a large detonation outside the atmosphere so it converts entirely into energy.
The other fallacy some fall into is that it can be 'controlled'. A correctly built and functioning nuke will detonate as a bubble. The physics of compressibility require it. A partial detonation will not yield enough energy to perform the task, and a large, 30-40MT device will be too heavy to lift except by some of the larger rocketry.
Using multiple warheads of smaller size doesn't work either as absorption of the Gamma radiation necessary for the nuclear explosion to convert to energy gets absorbed by the other detonations, and is not 'accumulative'.
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