While there’s no question that a nuclear strike on the Continental US would be utterly devastating, it’s not the only way a rogue state like North Korea could kill millions of American civilians in one fell swoop.
Another possibility that is being studied by lawmakers and Pentagon officials is – like North Korea itself – a vestige of the Cold War. We’re of course referring to an electromagnetic pulse. By detonating a hydrogen bomb in just the right spot miles above the Earth’s surface, the North could permanently damage the US power grid – maybe even take it offline completely. By robbing entire swaths of the US of electricity, the North could precipitate thousands – if not millions – of deaths.
The North first threatened an EMP attack over the summer, and North Korean media and its people have mentioned it several times since.
Given the success of the North’s missile tests, Congress increased funding for the Commission to Assess the Threat to the US from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack as part of the National Defense Authorization Act back in September.
Last month, federal agencies and utility executives held GridEx IV, a biennial event where officials responsible for hundreds of local utilities game out scenarios in which North America’s power grid could fail. Unsurprisingly, with the North Korean threat looming, these discussions took on a whole new level of urgency, as Bloomberg explains.
This year, the event took on an added urgency given growing concern with a weapon straight out of the Cold War: an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, emanating from a nuclear blast - specifically, one delivered by a North Korean missile or satellite detonated miles above the Earth. Though GridEx IV didn’t pose this exact scenario, industry experts concede there’s no clear plan to deal with it.
An EMP could damage electronic circuits over large areas, depending on the configuration of the weapon and how high it was detonated, though there’s disagreement over how effective such a tactic would be. Scientists also emphasize that a nuclear bomb that hits a ground target is much more worrisome. Nevertheless, with North Korea’s increasingly successful missile and warhead tests in mind, Congress moved to renew funding for the Commission to Assess the Threat to the US from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack as part of the National Defense Authorization Act.
In September, the commission’s top officials warned lawmakers that the threat of an EMP attack from a rogue nation “becomes one of the few ways that such a country could inflict devastating damage to the U.S."
GridEx IV participants said the use of an EMP, however improbable, has been very much on their radar. Lisa Barton, executive vice president of Columbus, Ohio-based American Electric Power Co.’s transmission unit, said the Electric Power Research Institute, an industry research arm, was analyzing the risk. An EPRI report published this week emphasized that widespread damage was indeed possible from such an attack.
The consensus was hardly reassuring. How damaging would an EMP attack be? Well, nobody can say for sure. But according to a report from the Electric Power Research Institute, an EMP could easily trigger a “mass casualty event” – even if its impact was limited to a specific region, as one of their simulations suggested...
Still, the EPRI report paints a picture that’s hard to ignore. Simulations showed that detonating a nuclear weapon about 250 miles above the Earth using a 1.4 megaton bomb, almost 100 times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima, would likely collapse voltage regionally, affecting several states but not the entire eastern or western networks. “None of the scenarios that were evaluated resulted in a nationwide grid collapse,” the report stated. Recovery time from a high-altitude EMP would depend on equipment damage, something the EPRI said it plans to study next year and “develop cost-effective options for mitigating."
Fortunately, the operators of America’s power grids have some experience developing emergency response scenarios for an EMP. As it turns out, an EMP would essentially mimic the effects of an extremely powerful solar flare. Power grid operators are constantly on the lookout for flares, and have theorized what improvements might be needed to make power grids totally resistant.
PJM Interconnection LLC, operator of the power grid serving one-fifth of America's population, has a lot of experience protecting systems against solar activity. PJM has also been working with transmission owners to protect against other threats, many of which have two specific characteristics: low probability and high potential for catastrophe, said Mike Bryson, vice president of operations for the Valley Forge, Pennsylvania-based operator. An EMP is one of them.
Power companies have made a few moves to protect against electromagnetic interference. Some grid operators and transmission infrastructure owners are putting in place so-called Faraday enclosures, shields of conductive material used to protect electronic equipment and facilities. Utilities have also started stockpiling spare parts to replace any that are damaged by an EMP event, storms or other disasters.
“I don’t think we have an illusion we will prevent it,” Bryson said in an interview. “That’s really the government’s job."
Expensive fortifications known as Faraday cages could help diffuse the energy pulse, possibly stopping it from overwhelming a power grid. Another option would be installing automated control systems that would regulate the grid’s response to an EMP, potentially allowing it to recover more quickly.
Duke Energy Corp., one of the country’s largest utility owners, has been working with EPRI to study its threat to civilian infrastructure. Lee Mazzocchi, Duke’s senior vice president of grid solutions, said “we really want to use science and research to validate if and how much an EMP threat there could be."
Jon Rogers, a scientist at Sandia National Laboratories, has been studying the threat since the 1990s. The lab has been looking at how automated control systems could help systems recover. Rogers noted that the grid already has lightning surge arrestors to protect against strikes, which could potentially be useful in case of an EMP. “There are open questions,” he said.
“Back in the Cold War, we worried about massive exchanges at the time with the Soviet bloc,” Rogers said. “There seems to be reduced concern about that and increased concern about a single or smaller surges and what that could mean.” Targeted attacks on specific elements of infrastructure are seen as more likely, including “using an EMP without going nuclear,” added Jeff Engle, vice president of government and legal affairs for United Data Technologies, a security services firm.
“EMP technology itself has been advancing with devices becoming smaller, more effective,” said Engle, who declined to give specific examples. Along these lines, the industry’s stance has been to prepare for less-intense EMPs from irregular lightning strikes, solar flares—and possibly localized attacks.
Researchers at the Edison Electric Institute believe an EMP would be tremendously damaging to a wide range of critical infrastructure...
For EMPs resulting from nuclear blasts, the Edison Electric Institute, an industry group, said the possible effects aren’t fully understood and proposed fixes remain unproven and impractical.
“Other sectors of the economy likely will be affected by a nuclear EMP attack, including other critical infrastructure sectors upon which the electric sector depends,” the group said in a 2015 paper titled Electromagnetic Pulses (EMPs):
Myths vs. Facts. “It makes little sense to protect the electric grid while ignoring these other critical infrastructure sectors."
…But the costs of fending off such an attack would be astronomical – as one scientist put it. Making the entire US power grid immune to an EMP would cost hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars.
Richard Mroz, president of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, warned the cost of preventing widespread failures from an EMP would “be astronomical.” Placing transformers or a substations in shielded cages would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, he said, while protecting critical assets on a distribution system like New Jersey’s could reach into the billions of dollars.
“Managing that kind of threat right now—no one really has the resources to do that,” Mroz said.
As we pointed out back in October, one expert told Congress that an EMP could kill off 90% of the US population. People who lived through the New York City blackout in 1977 will remember how lootings and crime exploded while the lights were out. A similar phenomenon would likely play out following an EMP, as law enforcement would be hobbled and powerless to contain criminal behavior.
Think about how Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated Puerto Rico by knocking out all communication and electricity infrastructure. Three months later, it has yet to be fully restored. Meanwhile, the death toll from the storms is on track to eclipse the thousands who died during Hurricane Katrina.
…Now imagine that scenario playing out across the entire Atlantic seaboard…
Government will but all else will not.
That’s the plan.
Can The US Survive An EMP Attack?
My response: For a short time, but it will be a BITCH and fell like we are in HELL!!!Will it wipe out all of the IRS computers? If so, I'm all for it!
No, but it might short circuit the cloud.
/sarc
/humor
The government will save us! (probably not)
Are you so afraid of no longer being hypnotized?
There'll be NO WAR with N Korea.
The ONLY thing the US is really good at is setting the Middle East on fire for Israhell. http://wp.me/p4OZ4v-2g9
But but but our ShitCoins !
Unless they have hypersonic ICBMs then we are safe. Plus the would never attempt it. This is all bogeyman bullshit. The just want to defend themselves from aggression.
Why wait for the Norks to do it? We should do it ourselves and flush the toilets that are Kalifornia and the NY/NJ/Mass/ect.
It would have a cleansing effect on the rest of the country.
Indeed. And the author says:-
"Back in the Cold War we worried about massive exchanges at the time with the Soviet bloc,” Rogers said. “There seems to be reduced concern about that"
Uh-huh. Why? Ignorance? Hubris? Lack of basic technical knowledge? Or just common garden-variety stupidity?
Perhaps I was being generous when I suggested the West could take down up to 10% of the warheads. Make that 3%.
THAAD isn't intended for that job, and GMD is only meant to take out a few proper ICBMs perhaps from Pak or NK, specifically IF they are heading to continental USA. It will mean a choice is required in the event that we push some large power into a major strike - which object will we protect? One city, or ?
****it’s not the only way a rogue state like North Korea could kill millions***
OH WAIT..., how many nations has NK invaded since year?
& how many millions have they killed?
Now lets take a look at the USA, UK & Israel... case closed
Death to the zionist money changers
we're not hypnotized, we're virus-invaded.
The bugs are within our body, duh!
Having said that, a moar intense EMP strike due to solar flares, or technology (we are) unheard of comes in from out there...then,
we maybe fxcked...but so will the bugs, hahaha.
All False Choices. ZH is supposed to have taught you people to forking THINK!
The real binary choices are:
A. Rough it within the EMP Zone
B. Rough it outside the EMP zone.
I hope nobody's brain hurts, having to work through that one.
You still miss the largest error of all. Why piss your pants about an ‘EMP attack’ when it would merely be a side effect of a NUCLEAR WAR?! That’s like worrying about getting dirt on your loafers from stepping on a landmine.
This recurrent EMP trope is utterly fucking absurd, I can think of only one real use for it; to scare the ignorant masses into submitting to yet more regulation and government spending.
It turns out that there is nothing to worry about: the clever Israelis have worked out how to get electricity from potatoes. No, really. It's not quite zero point energy, but how cheap are potatoes? As cheap as chips?
http://thinkaboutnow.com/2017/11/lighting-room-month-potato-yes-actually...
Will my bitcoins work?
The bad news, no.
The good news is that you will have plenty of time to develop your skills as a cannibal warlord.
Re.. "Will my bitcoins work?"
YES. Outside the EMP zone... in the rest of the world.
But that's the least of your problems:
1. W/o electricity and electronics, the US gets sent back to the late 1800s. Because the social and economic infrastructure of that era no longer exists, it will be worse than that:
2. 80-90% of the US population will die within 12-24 months.
3. In the meantime, the rest of the world will go on, still in the 21st Century. Even the towel heads, camel jockeys and Nigerians will have a better life.
How ironic will that be?
Let's find out?... Well...
Certainly looks like the U.S. MIC has a "death wish" (https://southfront.org/russia-says-number-nato-troops-near-border-triple...)!...
Not at all expensive. I made two very nice, big, Farraday cages out of metal screen, wood, hinges, staples, 10 gauge wire, and some grounding rods for less than $50. Just make certain to test them. Turn a radio on, set it inside, close it, and make certain that the radio loses signal.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-18/questions-assist-creating-worki...
Shielding a micro volt radio signal and defending from a powerful EMP or solar flare are like night and day.
The problem is compounded by the fact most electrical equipment will be operation when/if an EMP or solar flare hits. The problem would be any cable penetration of the Faraday cage.
One must know it is coming far enough in advance to remove and plug the penetrations.
No cable penetration, only a grounding of the cage itself.
Your quote speaks of protecting a power grid that is operational when the EMP/solar flare occurs. You speak of a Faraday cage for a piece of equipment that is essentially non-operational and/or self contained.
Not the same thing.
My understanding is that it is essentially the same thing, just scaled up a bit. I think the technology may be similiar to an airgap lightening protection device on a HAM radio antenna. I read it is not rocket surgery to protect our power grid against EMP, but that there is a moderate cost.
Where is Whiskey Zero? He knows this stuff better than anyone.
Lightening protection is very different than protection from an EMP.
The article states: "Placing transformers or a substations in shielded cages would cost ..."
Well that's just silly. Problem is, the long wires are antennas. They pick up the EMP wave over long distances and build up enormous voltages and movement of electric charge. Like lightning hitting every part of the wire at the same time. Cages around the transformers would not protect them, unless you disconnect them from the grid.
What is needed is those surge-suppressor thingies that drain away lightning charges from the wires. But lots of them. (tell the truth, I don't know what the utility planners would use -- the electrical charges to be handled are several (4? 5? 6?) orders of magnitude bigger than lightning)
Exactly. Near instantaneous disconnection of the power transformers from the power lines in case of unexpected fluctuations of voltage on the power lines. EMP protected ASICs should be able to manage it, provided the transformers can by physically disconnected from the power lines quickly enough (ie; microseconds). Unfortunately I expect it would require comparatively slow electromechanical solenoid operated switches.
There is, or was, a genre of YouTube videos of grid power switching fails.
Bottom line is, one does not simply disconnect the grid. Stuff burns out, blows up, and/or large dramatic arcs form between the conductors.
Back in ~ 2010 a lightening storm went through here. Struck two transformers, one on either side of our 13 acres. There was a massive arc between the two. We happened to have electric fence strung along the same line (give or take 500') as the arc took. A grass fire sprung up exactly along the fenceline. Pounding rain and the fire ignited exctly where the fence is. All along the perimeter of the fence (about 2 miles of it) the electric fence (orange plastic coating fine wire) was melted, plastic blobs, wires blackened.
The lightening never struck the electric fence but the energy ignited the grass along it.
Powerful shit.
Faraway cage on a transformer is useless, because normally hundreds of kilometers of transmission wire attached to it acts as an antenna. They other issue is lightening protection relies on the localised earth potential rise triggering protection. Lightening behaves differently to a magnetic pulse.
All electrical protection is designed with a cascading prospective fault current starting from the source (Generation). EMP source is the opposite hitting protection equipment with the lower fault current rating first.
The issue is the millions and millions of small local transformers that feed the network. Most never get maintenance and the neutral resistances poor (I tested 11 in my area 100% bad). A least my got fixed after complaining.
The best strategy is to have backup generation not grid tied, and have deep earth grid on your assets (measure the earth regularly).
I do use a faraday cage for storing solar diodes & mosfets/igbts spares needed to get solar panels inverters going.
Faraday cages require no grounding. The idea is that the Faraday cage conducts the charge (induced electron flow) around the enclosed equipment thus equalizing all charges inside the enclosure.
When you puncture the cage to run a big fat ole' cable through it, then it isn't a cage any more.
Faraday cages need not be grounded. See my comments above and below.
Faraday cages do not require grounding dumbshit (see my comment above). This is fundamental physics. The gaps in your metal screening must be smaller than 1/4th of the wavelength of the highest frequency you are trying to protect against, and depend upon the power of the impinging electromagnetic pulse and the conductivity of your metal screen. Is it at least copper or silver screening? What is the highest frequency of the EMP you are trying to protect against? Hahaha.
Your right on the money, they don't need grounding probably better not as current to earth in that event is going to be high.
What ever gets stored in a faraday cage needs to be isolated from the cage, don't just throw your stuff into a metal box.
Yes, the ideal Faraday cage is a uniform spherical (no gaps) superconducting material surrounding and not touching whatever needs to be protected inside the hollow superconducting sphere so that the induced electron flow instantly becomes uniform all around the exterior of the "cage", so that the net EMF inside the cage is zero. Not many of us can afford a liquid hydrogen cooled superconducting spherical container however. ;-)
just get an old microwave oven and remove the power cord. Same shielding that minimizes microwave energy also keeps out EMP.
EMP-proofing your vital electrical and electronic items (on the cheap)? Great. But...
But if the choice is between riding out the Time-Warp to the 1800s and continuing a relative normal life of the 20th/21st century elsewhere, I'd opt for the latter.
If you have a smart Evac Plan, you will probably have 6-12 hours to somehow get out of the EMP zone. Not a problem for some, but definitely for most.
We have an Evac Plan. But mine is already WIP, because I'm getting a head start to leave the US anyway. I've had enough of the US Debt Plantation. My HODLed BTC are allowing me to live and retire in a nice part of the world -- where they still welcome educated White people, where they enjoy quality organic food and Renewable Energy, where they allow guns and like gold and cryptos, and where they have reasonable Tax agencies: Switzerland.
100 millions or billions is nothing compared to the trillions and life destroyed. Is a no brain answer.
If any EMP attack happens to US soil, it won't be NK, but they will likely be blamed for it.
Could it be the whole EMP thing is a charade, and the 'trigger' - *if* they pull it - will actually be a code broadcast by cell phone towers to shut down all computers in a given area? Since all computers have embedded chips that can be controlled externally? It makes more sense to me, because this would be far more controllable than a nuke blast (which they may do anyway, but is not as efficient):
“The Intel Management Engine (ME), also known as the Manageability Engine, is an autonomous subsystem that has been incorporated in virtually all of Intel’s processor chipsets since 2008. The subsystem primarily consists of proprietary firmware running on a separate microprocessor that performs tasks during boot-up, while the computer is running, and while it is asleep. It continues to run when the system is turned off. Intel claims the ME is required to provide full performance. Its exact workings are largely undocumented and its code is obfuscated using confidential huffman tables stored directly in hardware, so the firmware does not contain the information necessary to decode its contents. Intel’s main competitor AMD has incorporated the equivalent technology Platform Security Processor (PSP) in virtually all of its post-2013 CPUs…
Critics like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and security expert Damien Zammit accuse the ME of being a backdoor and a privacy concern.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Management_Engine
Fortunately, my tractor, motorcycles, and chainsaw have no computer. Neither do my firearms, livestock, nor water source.
Well, if you aren't anywhere near New York, your chance of survival goes up exponentially:
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2017/09/27/mysterious-metal-towers/
And those chainsaws...can you prove you weren't involved in this??
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Texas_Chain_Saw_Massacre
that's exactly why I only have older computers that have points and a condenser (which will have to be replaced after the EMP)
If all chips have this mythical "suicide switch", then it is available to someone outside the control system. By hacking, by corruption, by mistake - the information on how to use it WILL get out, and WILL get used. Human nature. Given this is a known fact, would you be insane enough to build it into any system you manufacture, given that YOUR food supply, power, heat and way of life depend equally on these chips?
Until you show me the code, I will refrain from hiding under the bed in fear of that one. There are enough scary things in the world (like HRC) to worry about, without having to make stuff up, too.
People are such morons. The range of an EMP is short... you're dealing with power that falls off exponentially, the most it is going to affect is a few square miles if detonated at the surface. If in the upper atmosphere it wont do jack. I will get a laugh when someone tries it and it does nothing. It would take a crapton of EMPs to really cripple the country.
Citation?
The inverse square law. A 200 TERAWATT burst would drop to just 10 megawatts at distance of only 140 meters. That is a 20 fold loss of strength in just 1/10th of a mile. After 2 tenths of a mile you're already down into the kilowatts. The power falls off so rapidly that it cannot accomplish much of anything practical. This is basic grade school physics.