Posted on 08/12/2004 5:23:52 AM PDT by OESY
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[I]magine a blackout that lasts for months, or years.
That was the job of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the U.S. from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack. The commission, created in 2000 to examine the possibility of EMP attack and its aftermath, just delivered a report to Congress. All we can say is, we hope someone in Washington is paying attention.
An EMP attack occurs when an enemy sets off a nuclear explosion high in the Earth's atmosphere. The electromagnetic pulse generated by the blast destroys the electronics and satellites in its field of vision. For a detonation above the Midwest, that could mean the entire continental U.S.
No American would necessarily die in the initial attack, but what comes next is potentially catastrophic. The pulse would wipe out most electronics and telecommunications, including the power grid. Millions could die for want of modern medical care or even of starvation since farmers wouldn't be able to harvest crops and distributors wouldn't be able to get food to supermarkets. Commissioner Lowell Wood calls EMP attack a "giant continental time machine" that would move us back more than a century in technology to the late 1800s.
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China and Russia have the capability to launch an EMP weapon -- and have let us know it.
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But it's a relatively unsophisticated EMP weapon in the hands of terrorists that really scares the Commission. All it would take is one nuclear warhead attached to a Scud missile launched from a barge off the U.S. coast to shut down much of the country.
The Commission offers a series of recommendations for reducing U.S. vulnerability.
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(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
See "Warday" by Whitley Streiber and James Kunetka. It's fiction, but had reasonably realistic consequences of nuclear and EMP attack on the US.
EMP is a threat but this is article tin-foiled.
"War Day" is one of my all-time favorite books!
Can't things be shielded?
Guess we'll go into 'Y2K' mode. Yes, I was one of the nuts who prepared. Actually, it was kind of fun and I learned a whole lot about how dependent we are on modern technology. I think I'm a survivalist at heart. My husband, wisely, humored me through the whole thing. And, to his credit, he didn't say "I told you so"! LOL!
And, to his credit, he didn't say "I told you so"!
LOL, that is one good hubby you got there! I was very gratified at work on Jan 2 (or whatever day it was), 2000 to hear of another firm whose phones were down, they failed to find and fix a bug. I went nuts during '99 and it was nice to know it wasn't all a big hoax.
I'm pretty sure but not positive.. I think power utilities in major cities have been establishing secondary command centers for power generation, and I bet they have been stockpiling replacement parts.
The effect of an EMP would be devastating. I don't disagree with that, but I think a half year might be the longest we might have to endure with minimal power. Replacing domestic and non-essential infrastructure will be the most expensive and time consuming.
EMP: Is that the same thing that fries the electronics in cars?
That was the job of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the U.S. from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack.
But, but isn't that what W got ridiculed for doing, thinking of ways to damage the country?
Yes.
Won't be able to pump gas for it.
Actually mother nature attacks us with EMP all the time, it's called lightning. We also get blasted by solar winds at the poles (northern/southern lights) which also cause EMP. Sandia Labs in Albuquerque was/is a major player in developing EMP shielding.
Shielding only works to a certain degree. Aircraft are particularly vulnerable as there is no discharge path. Ground facilities can atleast shunt the extra energy to ground. Backup control systems, not connected to the grid would be safer, and no doubt are in use.
Oddly a nuclear war is only a theoretical possibility. If nukes started flying, the ICBMs coming in behind the first wave may be duds because of the EMP from the first wave.
At one time there was discussion of detonating nukes in space over the north pole to disable the electronics of incoming soviet missiles.
FYI
It could also be the biggest damn dud since the Y2K crisis.
EMP effects are difficult to model because they are extremely sensitive to environmental factors that are not fully understood. In EMP testing, it is very difficult to get consistently reproducible results. It's not uncommon to have Computer A get turned into a 20-pound paperweight, Computer B to hiccup slightly and continue running with subtle problems (more blue screens of death, etc.), and Computer C be unaffected--and they're all sitting on the same test bench at the same time...
I have a friend in the trucking industry, trucks gas all over NY..
He has a huge storage tank with a hand pump.
Isn't is true, that if electric current is not running through a particular device (i.e. unplugged) then it is shielded from EMP?
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