Posted on 09/24/2018 5:09:22 PM PDT by upchuck
The United States is vulnerable to a devastating electromagnetic pulse event caused by a high-altitude nuclear blast or solar superstorm, according to a recently published book.
Peter Pry, a former CIA analyst and author of the book EMP Manhattan Project, is urging the government to rapidly harden the U.S. electric power system against EMP similar to the three-year crash program to build the first atomic bomb in 1942.
"Today the United States and the world faces another existential threat—from an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) catastrophe that can be caused by nature or man, and topple the technological pillars of modern electronic civilization," said Pry, who served on a congressional EMP commission in the early 2000s.
The book contains fresh assessments of the EMP threat produced by a more recent congressional commission last year that concluded the United States would suffer millions of deaths from a major EMP incident.
EMP was discovered in the 1960s during above-ground nuclear tests. The tests showed a nuclear blast created a pulse capable of disrupting or destroying electronic devices over large areas, in some cases over 1,000 miles away.
The latest EMP commission found the United States is confronted with "a present and continuing existential threat from naturally occurring and manmade electromagnetic pulse assault and related attacks on military and critical national infrastructures."
An EMP event would produce an electric power outage over large areas of the country that could last for a year or longer.
Emergency systems, such as generators, also are vulnerable to damage from EMP.
EMP events would disable critical supply chains and plunge the entire country into living conditions similar to those of centuries ago prior the use of electric power.
"An extended blackout today could result in the death of a large fraction of the American people through the effects of societal collapse, disease, and starvation," the commission stated in its July 2017 report. "While national planning and preparation for such events could help mitigate the damage, few such actions are currently underway or even being contemplated."
William R. Graham, former head of the EMP commission, stated in a preface to the book that a nationwide electrical blackout of one year "could kill millions, perhaps prove fatal to most Americans, by starvation, disease, and societal collapse."
"EMP is a civilization killer," Graham said.
Read the rest at the link...
EMP is a joke and would be a 5 minute nuisance at best.
Self ping.
If the leftist globalist cannot rule Amerika, they will bring it down. The next false flag is going to be catastrophic ...
How strong of a magnetic pulse would a 1-kiloton blast create? And what and how would it damage the power grid? Not assuming you know or should know the answer...just wondering. It seems to me that the pulse would be of the transverse type. If so, would not the radiation decay at a rate inversely proportional to the radius? In which case a pulse high up in the atmosphere would decay immensely before it hit the earth...unless it was somehow guided to vulnerable infrastructure.
50,000 V/m is the unclassified field strength. Using simulation codes (from memory) a 1kT calculates out to around 40,000 V/m.
The impact to the power grid is projected to be to communications, controls, relays, generation plants. Below 100kV damage to infrastructure is possible. Above it’s not likely for a variety of reasons.
An EMP will not decay as you might expect, but a localized emitter would decay.
Damage predictions are statistical. Not everything will be destroyed but many things are expected to be damaged, destroyed, or upset.
Thank you...
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