Congress warned that NoKo EMP attack could kill 90% of Americans

americanthinker.com ^ | 10/13/2017 | Rick Moran

[rktman]

The House Homeland Security Committee heard expert testimony yesterday on the effects of a high-altitude nuclear detonation that could knock out the U.S. electrical grid for up to a year, resulting in the deaths of 90% of Americans.

A nuclear attack from space would generate an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, that would "inflict devastating damage" on the U.S.

Washington Examiner:

In calling on the Pentagon and President Trump to move quickly to protect the grid, the experts testified that an explosion of a high-altitude nuclear bomb delivered by a missile or satellite "could be to shut down the U.S. electric power grid for an indefinite period, leading to the death within a year of up to 90 percent of all Americans."

[Robert DeLong]

These estimates are so grossly exaggerated that they look foolish. Would it create havoc, for sure, but not the devastation they are claiming.

[rktman]

Thought I read somewhere that we don't have some of the gear needed to recover at all. I could be uh, incorrect. (That's what I get for "thinking")🤔🍿🍻🚬🗑

[CommerceComet]

Now you can google far and wide to try to understand Dr. Pry's technical qualifications in this area and you will come up empty because he is not a scientist or engineer but some political scientist enmeshed in the swamp business of getting a payoff for running a consultancy advocating for various policy initiatives that will, so the hope goes, result in a massive payoff for his paymasters, some other defense consultant contract who will also get paid even bigger bucks to study the problem. Even then, I would expect that portions of our country would emerge from the attack relatively unscathed. The military would as they have been prepared for a nuclear battlefield with EMP present for decades. There are experts in this area. They are at places like Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the nuclear weapons laboratories. But we don't here much from them on this subject. It isn't about solving a problem, but horning in on the business of national security consulting.

This is important to note. Not everyone who testifies to Congress is necessarily qualified or credible.

I don't dispute that an EMP has the ability to create damage but not nearly on the scale of the wet-dream fantasies of the doomsdayers. To totally devastate a nation as large as ours with EMP could only be done with assurance by the sun. For a human military to accomplish this level of destruction would require a co-ordinated, multi-layer attack of nuclear weapons with enhanced EMP capabilities launched from satellites and detonating in the atmosphere all around the country. Our military might be able to accomplish this and maybe the Chinese and Russians but not the North Koreans.

[5th MEB]

Use a mechanical hand pump, piston or PDP.
Not hard to do.

[5th MEB]

Have axes, banjo saws, splitting wedges.
Usually use old 20 ton jack I rigged to split wood.

[pas]

The EMP would also fry most transportation. There is where the major problems come in. But this assumes no other country would send transportation and work to replace the electrical grid. There is a trilogy on this by William R. Forstchen. One Second After and 2 others.

[PA Engineer]

We don't. Most now come from China with at least an eighteen month manufacture and ship time. Here is a small one:



They can only be shipped by rail and with specialized transport to the substations.

Murkowski blocked the original bill to harden the grid. Check the date on the article.

Murkowski Blocks Effort to Protect US Power Grid

She blocked it because she was not going to get a piece of the "transformer pie."

[AndyJackson]

could only be done with assurance by the sun

Not even then. A large solar storm is worse than nuke EMP, and we survive those from time to time. Yes, it is a concern, but getting to ground truth when every swamp monster in DC is trying to get in on the protection racket.

[rktman]

WHAT? A member of CONgress gaining something through legislation? Say it ain’t so. Good thing we’re tight with China now huh?

[JimRed]

Anything put into orbit by NK that passes above the US should be ASAT target practice on the first or second pass.

[Kozak]

You also don’t have any transport because most modern cars and trucks would be dead from the EMP.

[Vermont Lt]

Yes, I agree that would be problematic.

I wonder how many high school chemistry teachers could figure a way to get insulin stock from local pig farmers. I know that sounds like a bad TV show, but the original Type 1 insulin came from a guy who synthesized it from pigs.

One has to wonder if the “knowledge” is still out there. Talk about a corner on the market if you could find someone who could do this.

[Kozak]

Where do you get the diesel fuel for them?

[JimRed]

I have an aquifer running 25’-100’ deep under the neighborhood, 5 miles wide.

Have you had it tested recently? Shallow aquifers are more likely to be contaminated. Filtration and treatment might be necessary.

[DannyTN]

"You also don’t have any transport because most modern cars and trucks would be dead from the EMP."

That's not true. They tested vehicles and most survived. Most of the ones that stalled, could simply be restarted. A few needed to have the battery disconnected for a few seconds and then restarted. One truck actually needed repairs.

The reason you won't have transport is because the fuel station pumps won't work.

Would your car survive an EMP Attach

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

EMP might kill 90% of Americans. Hooey. Utter nonsense.

Maybe 1 million or so people who are dependent on medical electronics to survive. And while it might turn off the electrical grid for a week, we are more than capable of fixing it.

At a personal level, the way you can protect personal electronics is simple. Put them in a metal box, aka a Faraday cage. Car electronics would be problematic, if you have a car that will only run if its electronic black box is working.

“If you want to build a larger ‘shield room,’ as engineers refer to rooms that are essentially large Faraday cages for storing electronics, you can do so by covering the inside of a small room or closet with several layers of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Overlap all of the seams and tape them with regular cellophane tape. It even works with a large cardboard box.

The most important thing is timing. If it looks like the US and NorK are about to go to war, then is the time to act.

[shotgun]

Okay as long as you are prepared.

[GingisK]

Yeah, few Americans will be unable to live without their cell phones, and that’s a fact.

[GingisK]

;-D I think we have a winner!

[PA Engineer]

A large solar storm is worse than nuke EMP, and we survive those from time to time.

The grid and for that matter electricity, have not been commercialized long enough to make that claim. The Carrington Event followed a 200 year solar cycle. We are approaching that period of solar storms now.

Funny thing. The Carringon Event was only X43. There have been far worse in other cycles. Of course there was no grid (that we know of) to test out our hubris. The recent storms have not been direct earth shots, and were halo storms.

Finally, a CME only comprises one component of a nuclear EMP event. That is the E3 phase. We have no idea how our communication and control system is going to hold up with the EMP E1 and E2 components.