Federal panel warns of national blackout in EMP attack

THESE WARNINGS GET LESS ATTENTION THAN THE CLIMATE-CHANGE ONES: Federal panel warns of national blackout in EMP attack.

The grid is a “prime target” of terrorists and that Americans are not ready for living without electricity, transportation, fuel, money, and healthcare.

“People no longer keep enough essentials within their homes, reducing their ability to sustain themselves during an extended, prolonged outage. We need to improve individual preparedness,” said the report.

“There needs to be more individual accountability for preparedness,” adds the report, Surviving a Catastrophic Power Outage.

Secrets earlier this week pointed out some of the issues raised in the report:

Given the growing frequency and severity of disasters and other risks, there needs to be an increase in individual accountability, enterprise, and community investment in resilient infrastructure.​

We should be hardening our systems. I don’t want to live in One Second After, or even in Lightning Fall.

 

Same thing that can happen if we are in the path of a CME (coronal mass ejection). This is ONE reason why the smart guys and gals in the science sphere are advocating renewables in smaller interconnected grids https://www.businessinsider.com/solar-storm-effects-electronics-energy-grid-2016-3/?r=AU&IR=T

 

I hope they hit a liberal area

 

Canned goods lots of ammo

 

The electronics in those systems would also get fired.

 

But they would not be as vulnerable as the big transformers (not auto bots ) - and apparently it is THOSE that are most vulnerable and difficult to repair and replacehttps://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/26oct_solarshield

 

They would be easier to repair, being of smaller scale.

 

Do you think it might be easier to harden power generation that is centrally located than spread out? I'd think it easier to put up a faraday cage over a substation than multitudes of windmills or solar cells.

 

Would a Faraday cage protect against electromagnetic pulse?

 

Renewables have come of age - mostly thanks to cheap onshore wind power. Watch this space with South Australia which is getting into decentralised power in a big way. They have already invested in a huge battery backup for renewables and apparently are tickled pink with the reactivity of the system. Mind you SA has lots of both sunshine and wind so........

 

Not sure - the nasa link I put up has some interesting points

And this UK report is so thorough that it is eye watering!!!

https://assets.publishing.service.g...5-457-space-weather-preparedness-strategy.pdf

 

That seems to be the preferred method, not sure how strong a pulse they can handle.

Another big concern is the last time I read about, nuclear plants are not protected from an EMP attack and if they lose their electronics, the core will melt down. Unless they are of the molten salt type.

 

A quick bit of research reveals that a Faraday cage is the standard defense against EMP. Tim is correct.

 

OK

Bit of research (which it seems we are all doing

http://www.govtech.com/em/emergency-blogs/disaster-zone/thedifferencebetweenanempandacme.html

Seems a Faraday cage will protect the transformers from an EMP but not a Carrington Event (CME). And this is where it makes sense about smaller grids being better protection with CME’s

 

The problem with Faraday cages is that anything that is inside must be isolated from the outside, else the protection is reduced or nullified.

So, for instance, if you want a power transmission cable to extend outside the cage, then that cable becomes a conduit for the EMP to come in.

 

So I understand

And that is some of the issue I gather with the CMEs - it is the “wobbling” of the earths magnetic field acting like an electric motor by inducing current in the wires - or so I understand

I happily admit here that I am an amateur with this and have read about it only because I am an inveterate science nerd and the whole “Carrington Event” thing is a delicious bit of doomsday speculation

 

Oh frigg! An EMP blast? That's my nightmare scenario. It would destroy the Point of Sales system that I run. An EMP blast would destroy the entire system, and the replacement parts at the stores would also be destroyed. It would take a few years to recover from that, maybe 3 years or more. It would destroy retail.

 

It would be unwise for America's enemies to attack their allies in america.

 

The US electrical grid is in great need of an overhaul.

There are ways to harden against EMP but they are burdensome and there is no guarantee of success.

People should have ways to sustain and protect themselves for potentially weeks while electrical is restored.

 

Cars, buses, planes, trains and non-protected electronics would be fried. What would be left to run a country?

 

You mean everyone wandering around Walmart with a cellphone surgically attached to their ear would starve, because they won't have any help in deciding on the brand of canned vegetable to buy?

 

Most windmills and solar panels require some electronics to operate them properly. They would get fried along with everything else.

 

Well they won't have any options if there are no more vegetables being canned.

 

Yes it is and if the climate change deniers would listen to people other than right wing shock jocks they would learn that moving to renewables and decentralised grids will give some measure of protection against CME events. All the papers I have read suggest that Americas grid is well overdue for renovation - and the coal and other fossil fuel companies have been getting huge subsideis for years to do this maintenance - but that is not where the money has gone.

Time for a change