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Failure to Protect U.S. Against Electromagnetic Pulse Threat Could Make 9/11 Look Trivial Someday
Forbes ^ | July 31, 2014 | Peter Kelly-Detwiler

Posted on 04/07/2015 9:26:37 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Exploding A Nuclear Bomb In The Sky Creates An Interesting Phenomenon

In 1962, during the depths of the Cold War, the U.S. military exploded a nuclear weapon high above an atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Dubbed Operation Starfish, this exercise was part of a larger project to evaluate the impacts of nuclear explosions in space. The missile, launched from Johnson Island, 900 miles from Hawaii, was armed with a 1.4 megaton warhead, programmed to explode at 240 miles above the earth. It detonated as expected. What was not entirely expected was the magnitude of the resulting electromagnetic pulse (EMP).

The EMP was powerful enough to affect the electric grid in Hawaii, blowing out streetlights, and resulting in telephone outages and radio blackouts.

Dr. William Graham was active in the follow-up to the project, working out of the Air Force weapons lab in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After the blast, it was his job to understand the data collected, find out just what had happened in Hawaii, and what the defense implications were of this phenomenon. In a recent interview, Graham commented,

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


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy; Russia; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: americanblackout; coldwar; collapse; electricity; emp; energy; griddown; infrastructure; iran; military; missiles; northkorea; nuclearwar; preppers; russia; superemp; terrorism; warheads
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1 posted on 04/07/2015 9:26:37 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
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To: 3D-JOY; abner; Abundy; AGreatPer; Albion Wilde; AliVeritas; alisasny; ALlRightAllTheTime; ...

An oldie but a goodie.

PING!


2 posted on 04/07/2015 9:27:07 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Celebrate Holy Week by flogging a banker. It's what Jesus would have done.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Well, we failed to embrace desalination, which allows for massive water shortages sometime in the near future, and now, without EMP protection, something unfortunate is bound to happen.


3 posted on 04/07/2015 9:30:28 AM PDT by Morpheus2009
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To: Morpheus2009
Why worry about EMP when computer hackers could bring down the nation's power grid?
4 posted on 04/07/2015 9:33:06 AM PDT by buckalfa (First time listener, long time caller.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

240 miles is a long way up. That’s where the ISS orbits and max altitude for modern ICBMs.


5 posted on 04/07/2015 9:33:54 AM PDT by Bryanw92 (Sic semper tyrannis)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Read this book: One Second After to gain proper appreciation of the devastating affect an EMP will have on the US.

Unfortunately, it's not hard to do.

6 posted on 04/07/2015 9:33:55 AM PDT by upchuck (The current Federal Governent is what the Founding Fathers tried to prevent. WAKE UP!! Amendment V.)
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To: Kartographer; null and void

PING!


7 posted on 04/07/2015 9:34:08 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Celebrate Holy Week by flogging a banker. It's what Jesus would have done.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

So the EMP threat from Iran, North Korea and others finally got some real media exposure. Low-techs will someday rule.


8 posted on 04/07/2015 9:35:13 AM PDT by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
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To: buckalfa

An EMP would not just take down the power grid. It would destroy the transformers essential to the grid’s operation. Probably at least a year to begin a fix, years to get things back to normal. Although “normal” would never be normal as we think of it.


9 posted on 04/07/2015 9:37:09 AM PDT by upchuck (The current Federal Governent is what the Founding Fathers tried to prevent. WAKE UP!! Amendment V.)
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To: upchuck

Estimates I have seen say 90% of the US population would not survive. Most deaths would be from starvation.


10 posted on 04/07/2015 9:40:08 AM PDT by upchuck (The current Federal Governent is what the Founding Fathers tried to prevent. WAKE UP!! Amendment V.)
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To: appalachian_dweller; OldPossum; DuncanWaring; VirginiaMom; CodeToad; goosie; kalee; ...

PrepperPING!!

Looks like a lot of people have EMP on their minds.

Also this post:
The EMP Threat: All It Would Take Is A Couple Of Explosions To Send America Back To The 1800s

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3276590/posts?page=62


11 posted on 04/07/2015 9:40:42 AM PDT by Kartographer ("We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.")
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Most people can’t function without their cell phones. And cell phones are high up on the food chain of vulnerability as far as what technology is needed for them to work.


12 posted on 04/07/2015 9:40:47 AM PDT by dhs12345
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

If it takes out cell phones the millennials will commit suicide.


13 posted on 04/07/2015 9:41:22 AM PDT by sickoflibs (King Obama : 'The debate is over. The time for talk is over. Just follow my commands you serfs""')
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To: buckalfa

a hackSAW could do what hackers can do to the power grid, because it is a redundant distributed network with multiple points of control that make a cyber attack more difficult, just as it does for the internet. EMP however could instantly wipe out multiple control systems, making it difficult for the grid to self-heal. For example, hackers could target a specific power generating plant with something like Stuxnet but they could not target them all. In contrast, EMP could destroy the communications between dozens of power generating plants making it impossible for them to load-balance and thus causing damage to occur at all of them.


14 posted on 04/07/2015 9:42:41 AM PDT by bigbob (The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly. Abraham Lincoln)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

The US and world economies are so tied together thru the ‘Net that any significant disruption could be a catastrophe for weeks or months....................years, even..............


15 posted on 04/07/2015 9:43:27 AM PDT by Red Badger (Man builds a ship in a bottle. God builds a universe in the palm of His hand.............)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

As always, it will take a major EMP strike against us or one of our allies to make the government get serious about hardening our infrastructure against EMP.


16 posted on 04/07/2015 9:45:40 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (True followers of Christ emulate Christ. True followers of Mohammed emulate Mohammed.)
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To: upchuck

Probably a conservative estimate. Consider that panic will begin within hours after the ATM network fails, and people are not able to access cash, or purchase gasoline, food, or medicine. Those who live on EBT cards are not known to big preppers ;-) The cities will go first of course, but as “One Second After” describes, even rural and small towns will not be far behind. I can’t predict the future any better than anyone else here can, but I do believe this is how it will end. Hopefully no time soon.


17 posted on 04/07/2015 9:47:26 AM PDT by bigbob (The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly. Abraham Lincoln)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

As a young relative might say...

ALL THE DERPS!!!!

KYPD (and optics with batteries removed.....)


18 posted on 04/07/2015 9:54:26 AM PDT by petro45acp (Grubbers "stupid" electorate is starting to look very much like Romney's 47%. Just sayin...)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
I lived in Honolulu when that bomb was detonated. I really wanted to sit out on the lawn and watch, but my parents insisted that it was occurring after "bed time", so I missed the show.
19 posted on 04/07/2015 9:57:08 AM PDT by Myrddin
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To: upchuck
An EMP would not just take down the power grid. It would destroy the transformers essential to the grid’s operation. Probably at least a year to begin a fix, years to get things back to normal. Although “normal” would never be normal as we think of it.

You just have to take out 9 specific HV transformers during peak usage to cause a coast to coast blackout. These are not guarded. All it takes are 9 sleeper agents to act at the same time. I'd be suspicious of some of these 30 year old "college students" at universities near these transformers.

Here is a Congressional Research study done on the security of the power grid back in 2014 :

Physical Security of the U.S. Power Grid: High-Voltage Transformer Substations

20 posted on 04/07/2015 9:57:21 AM PDT by TheCipher (Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself. Mark Twain)
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