EMP Attack Could Wipe Out U.S.

NewsMax ^ | September 9, 2009 | By Ronald Kessler

[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.

[SiGeek]

...The filters are COTS items...

Can you elaborate on what these filters are or where to get them? (eg post a link)

[DBrow]

“I would like to put my crank radio into one.”

the microwave can act as a Faraday cage, but a double wrap of aluminum foil is just as effective. ANY closed conductive box can be a good Faraday cage.

[Colvin]

“Some would say “why try to survive?” For what? “

For the fun of it.

[Quix]

Most interesting.

Thanks.

Be safe LazSpaz.

[Atlas Sneezed]

Please note that old, defunct microwaves act as (because they are) Faraday cages.

---

So do metal garbage cans. I think you’re wasting effort.

[castowell]

This story seems to get re-hashed at least once a month on FR. Enough already!

[Admin Moderator]

This news is about 50 years old. Not even close to Front Page material.

[meyer]

This could increase the popularity of foil-backed insulation and aluminum siding.

[mbynack]

This goes in the same drawer with global warming. Some of it is worth mentioning. The rest of it is hysteria.

Okay. I'm going home and build a farraday cage around my zombie-proof shelter that I built to hide from the aliens. It's completely self contained, except for food, water and air.

[Nathan Zachary]

Listen to late night AM radio much? LoL! Funny stuff if you are stuck driving late at night. Those flying saucers are something else too..

[netmilsmom]

Thanks!!!!!!

I figure, better to be safe than sorry.

[geologist]

That fiction was based on an hypothetical occurrence and human nature. . It was a guess. Having a better foundation than so called” global warming”. Look how many people are believing that.

Be flippant, if you like ... unfortunately when it happens, it will too late ...

Perhaps you believe the comics heroes are about as true as the possibility of this happening in America.

With the open borders it is ... but, by the Grace of
God ... we have not had another “911” or worse.

I pray you are correct and there will be no “Electro Magnetic pulse.”

Boy Scouts are taught to be prepared.

[DBrow]

Search on EMP filters, emp power line filter, and the like. Lightning filters come close but are designed for a much longer pulse, so a lightning filter won’t help much with HEMP.

Glasstone’s book The Effects Of Nuclear Weapons has a good unclassified discussion of EMP and HEMP.

http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADD004450

is one hit from such a search.

You’d be better off investing in lightning filters, much more likely to happen to your electronics, and personally I’d invest in food, ammo, and medicine if you are worried about an EMP attack. Having a hardened TV won’t help if your local transmitters and cable companies are changing all their interface gear after a strike.

[Hepsabeth]

Good luck finding a gas station without a digital pump.

**********

Getting gasoline out of the underground tanks without using the digital pumps is a rather simple problem to solve, I would think.

[geologist]

and ... because we can ...

with preparations

[old curmudgeon]

Right on!!!

That should work.

Hmmmm...

How long can you hold your breath?

[I Buried My Guns]

"Oldness" is not an important characteristic. They are all the same in this regard, as it is the little metal wire mesh that keeps the microwaves IN that also have the effect of keeping the EMP OUT.

You know the wire mesh that is visible inside the glass on the door? That is the Farady aspect. That wire mesh encompasses the entire device and is what makes them a tool against EMP.

I used the word "old" simply because folks rarely offer new ones on Craigslist. It does not need to be a working device, as the thing that makes it valuable to us is the wire mesh.

On the other hand, you can buy the mesh separately. It is expensive, though.

[GonzoGOP]

Okay. I'm going home and build a farraday cage around my zombie-proof shelter that I built to hide from the aliens.

EMP armed dope smoking alien zombies. Those are the worst kind. They wipe out all the electricity, sit around smoking pot until they get the munchies, then watch out for your brain.

[Hodar]

You could buy a filter for your incoming power, that would catch the surge from the line from the transformer to your house.

The EMP is a radio frequency pulse, with a phenominal amount of energy behind it. Your filters that you have around the house and the home are designed to remove spikes from hair dryers, your AC firing up, stuff like that. We are talking about noise well below 1,000 hz. We are talking of ramp rates that are millions of times slower than an EMP. Unfortuntately, these are all but useless where EMP is concerned. Think of trying to stop a speeding bullet with a butterfly net. Chances are that the butterfly net will be left completely functional, it won't even know that the spike sailed through it.

If I were to attempt to design something to be EMP resistant, it would be expensive - even schotky diodes that are used to eliminate ESD spikes are going to be to slow and sluggish to respond to an EMP pulse. The only thing I can think of would be to build a Faraday cage around your home, with each square being less than 1 sq. ft. in size. Don't have the time to do the calculations, but your mesh would have to be fairly tight - and your cell phone will not work in the house anymore, chances are you'll also loose your wireless router too. Bluetooth may still work in your home, but I would expect the range to be drastically reduced. I think you could keep your windows, if you covered them with a metalic film - not sure on that one.

[DBrow]

http://140.194.76.129/publications/armytm/tm5-690/c-4.pdf

http://140.194.76.129/publications/armytm/tm5-690/c-5.pdf

Here’s a link to Chapters 4&5 of Tech Manual 5-690, it has lots of geeky detail on how to keep HEMP out of your stuff. $ has EMI filtering, which is applied to the HEMP pulse. C5 is filtering, grounding, bonding, and Faraday cages for HEMP protection. Lots of military gear is hardened.