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Late one cold winter night, during a massive winter storm that covers most of the Central and Eastern United States, a 100-kiloton nuclear warhead suddenly explodes 100 miles above Dallas, Texas. Two minutes later, identical nuclear warheads explode over Las Vegas, Nevada, and Columbus, Ohio. Each nuclear high-altitude detonation produces an enormous electromagnetic pulse (EMP); the three EMPs together blanket most of the continental United States.
The detonation of a 1.44-megaton W49 nuclear warhead 250 miles above Johnston Island in 1962 resulted in the first recorded high-altitude electromagnetic pulse. The photo was taken 860 miles away in Hawaii, far enough away to prevent severe retinal burns in the eyes of observers in Honolulu (military officials had moved the site of the test from Bikini Atoll because the nuclear fireball could blind people up to 400 miles away).[1]Federal government of the United States, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
In a few billionths of a second, the initial EMP E1 waves induce massive voltages and currents into powerlines throughout the three U.S. power grids. Any unshielded modern electronic device plugged into the grid instantly has its circuits fried; this includes all the computers and devices that control the operation of most U.S. critical national infrastructure – including the Emergency Power Systems and active Emergency Core Cooling Systems of at least 26 commercial nuclear reactors. Huge surges of electricity created by the E1 waves wreck the control panels of High-Voltage Substations and destroy the computers at power plants and power distribution centers. The combined effects of this catastrophic damage cause all three U.S. power grids to suddenly collapse.
Figure 1: The three U.S. electric power grids.[2]U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “U.S. Electricity Grid and Markets”, retrieved September 1, 2024 from https://www.epa.gov/green-power-markets/us-electrici...arkets
A few seconds later, the following EMP E3B Heave Waves destroy most of the Extra High Voltage (EHV) Circuit Breakers and at least one-third of the Large Power Transformers (LPTs) that are required for the long-distance transmission of 90% of the electricity in the U.S. The damage and destruction of the EHV Circuit Breakers and LPTs will leave entire regions of the U.S. without electric power for a year or longer.
The Nuclear Strike
The nuclear warheads are “delivered” to their target areas by ballistic missiles launched from a submarine located 200 miles south of Pensacola in the Gulf of Mexico. The submarine requires less than one minute[3]Mizokami, K. (May 24, 2018). “Russian Sub Unleashes Four Nuclear missiles in Less Than 20 Seconds”. Popular Mechanics,
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships...conds/ to fire the three missiles from a depth of 150 feet. The missiles are fired on depressed trajectories to reduce the time required for their warheads to reach their designated targets;[4]Gronlund, L., Wright, D. (1992). “Depressed trajectory SLBs: A technical evaluation and arms control possibilities”. Science and Global Security, 3, no. 2. Pp. 101-109. https://scienceandglobalsecurity.org/archive/1992/06...t.html their flight times last 5 to 7 minutes from launch to detonation. U.S. Early Warning systems spot the launches, but U.S. missile defense systems don’t have enough time to intercept the missiles or their nuclear warheads before they explode high over the U.S.[5]Thomas, W. (March 1, 2022). “Physicists Argue US IBM Defenses are Unreliable”. FYI: Science Policy News.
https://ww2.aip.org/fyi/2022/physicists-argue-us-icb...liable
The location of these three high-altitude nuclear detonations did not have to be precise – detonations over other eastern and western locations (over Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Alabama, or Seattle and Los Angeles) would produce very similar results. However, the detonations had to occur above the Earth’s atmosphere and during the darkest hours of the night; the time, the altitude of 106 miles, and the extreme weather conditions were chosen to maximize the destructive effects of the EMP.[6]Gilbert, J., Kappenman, J., Radasky, W. (2010). “The Late-Time (E3) High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and Its Impact on the U.S. Power Grid”, Metatech Corporation, Meta R-321, Section 3.
http://www.futurescience.com/emp/ferc_Meta-R-321.pdf
The detonations suddenly light up the skies above the U.S. There is no sound because the atmosphere at such high altitudes is too thin to transmit sound waves. No blast effects or fires are created on Earth, but massive bursts of powerful gamma rays released by the detonations travel downward at 186,000 miles per second. As the gamma rays enter the atmosphere, they rip the electrons from air molecules and send them spinning toward Earth at almost the speed of light. The Earth’s magnetic field interacts with these massive clouds of spinning electrons, creating gigantic EMP E1 waves that sweep downwards faster than lightning.
EMP E1 Destroys the Solid-State Electronics Required to Operate Critical National Infrastructure
EMP does not harm people, animals, or plants, nor will it cause structural damage to buildings. However, an EMP E1 wave will instantly induce highly destructive electric voltages and currents into any electrically conductive material located in the huge circular areas beneath the nuclear detonations. Each nuclear detonation creates a large circular area of EMP E1 exposure covering many hundreds of thousands of square miles (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Exposure areas for EMP E1 waves from nuclear detonations 106 miles above Columbus Ohio, Dallas Texas, and Las Vegas, Nevada. The large circles depict the ranges of EMP E1 exposure, and the inner blue circles illustrate the areas where power surges created by EMP E1 incident waves can damage solid-state electronic devices that are not plugged into the grid.[7]Image derived from Savage, E., Gilbert, J., Radasky, W. (2010). “The Early-Time (E1) High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and Its Impact on the U.S. Power Grid”. Metatech Corporation, Meta R-320, p. 7-20 and p. 2-30, also https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=183521
The EMP E1 waves induce 2 million volts and currents of 5,000[8]The worst-case HEMP E1 used by the military in MIL-STD-188-125-1 for an E1-induced powerline current of 5,000 amperes. The characteristic impedance for a power line is approximately 400 ohms, thus providing a peak worst-case voltage level of 2 MV. Op. cit. “The Early-Time (E1) High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and Its Impact on the U.S. Power Grid”, p. 7-3 to 10,000[9]Cybersecurity Division of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, National Coordinating Center for Communications, February 5, 2019. “Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Protection and Resilience Guidelines for Critical Infrastructure and Equipment”, version 2.2 UNCLASSIFIED, p. 29. amps within medium distribution power lines. Overvoltages of 200,000 to 400,000 volts (beyond design capacity) occur in the 15 kilovolt-class (kV) power distribution lines that connect to most homes, farms, and businesses.[10]Op. cit. “The Early-Time (E1) High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and Its Impact on the U.S. Power Grid”. p. 7-27. In less than one-millionth of a second, these damaging voltages and currents surge through the U.S. power grids . Unless specifically protected from E1, any modern electronic device that contains solid-state circuitry (microchips, transistors, and integrated circuits) that is plugged into the grid will be disabled, damaged, or destroyed by this huge blast of electricity. This includes the electronic devices required to operate all U.S. critical national infrastructure.
The regions located beneath the points of detonation (depicted as dark blue circles in Figure 2) suddenly experience E1 waves powerful enough to induce damaging voltages and currents into electronic devices that are not plugged into the grid. 50,000 volts and 100 amps of current surge into unshielded AC power cords.[11]Op. cit. “Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Protection and Resilience Guidelines for Critical Infrastructure and Equipment”, p. 29. Cell phones are disabled along with cell towers; almost all forms of telecommunication cease. Virtually everything powered by electricity suddenly stops working.
Ground, air, and sea transportation systems, water and sanitation systems, telecommunication systems, and banking systems are all knocked out of service. Food and fuel distribution cease. Emergency medical services become unavailable. The multitude of electronic devices that society depends on have suddenly stopped working.
EMP E1 Knocks Out Power Through the Destruction of Glass Insulators on 15 kV Power Lines
Figure 3: Flashover destroys glass insulators on a power distribution line.[12]Orient Power Insulators, retrieved September 19, 2024.
https://www.composite-insulator.com/learn-more-about...r.html
Massive voltages and currents induced in power transmission lines by E1 waves, combined with extreme weather conditions, act to overload, short-circuit, and destroy millions of glass insulators (a process called “flashover”) that are commonly used on 15 kilovolt (kV) electric power distribution lines throughout the United States. 78% of all electricity in the US is delivered to end users (residential, agricultural, commercial) through these 15 kV lines.[13]Ibid. p. 7-25
(Orient Power Insulators, retrieved September 19, 2024.
https://www.composite-insulator.com/learn-more-about...r.html) The loss of a single glass insulator on a line can knock out power distribution on the entire line.
As subzero weather conditions prevail across much of the U.S., the lights and power suddenly go out in American homes.
Chaos
In an instant, almost every electronic device required for modern living stops working. The computers, modems, routers, programmable logic controllers, and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems used to monitor, control, and automate complex industrial processes all go dead. All Hell breaks loose.
All rail, port, and air traffic control ceases to function. GPS and fiber optic systems fail. Planes fall from the sky. Motorized valves that control the flow of gas and oil in millions of miles of pipelines suddenly freeze, causing ruptures and explosions. Water delivery systems fail. Control is lost at refineries and offshore platforms. Major furnace and boiler explosions take place at coal-fired power plants. Control over all industrial processes and assembly lines is lost. Remote-control systems used in every industrial process suddenly cease operations.
Annie Jacobsen, in her remarkable book, Nuclear War: A Scenario[14]Jacobsen, A. (2024). Nuclear War: A Scenario, Penguin Random House, ISBN 978-0593476093., vividly describes what happens after a Super-EMP weapon is detonated over the central U.S. (Russian and Chinese open-source military texts describe Super-EMP weapons that create EMP E1 waves two to four times more powerful than those described in this article[15]“Russia: Nuclear Response To America Is Possible Using Super-EMP Factor”, Aleksey Vaschenko, “A Nuclear Response To America Is Possible,” Zavtra, November 1, 2006. Vaschenko, A., Belous, V. (April 13, 2007); “Preparing for the Second Coming of ‘Star Wars”, Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye translated in Russian Considers Missile Defense Response Options CEP20070413330003. Zhao Meng, Da Xinyu, and Zhang Yapu, (May 1, 2014). “Overview of Electromagnetic Pulse Weapons and Protection Techniques Against Them” Winged Missiles (PRC Air Force Engineering University):
“Of America’s 280 million registered vehicles, “10 percent of the vehicles on the road [are] suddenly not running anymore . . . Without power steering or electric brakes, vehicles coast to a stop or crash into other vehicles, into buildings, into walls. Stalled and crashed vehicles block lanes of traffic on roads and bridges everywhere, no longer just in places where people have been fleeing nuclear bombs but in tunnels and on overpasses, on big and small roads, in driveways and in parking lots across the nation . . . Electric pumping of fuel has just come to a permanent and fatal end . . .
There will be no more fresh water. No more toilets to flush. No sanitation. No streetlights, no tunnel lights, no lights at all, only candles, until there are none left to burn. No gas pumps, no fuel. No ATMs. No cash withdrawals. No access to money. No cell phones. No landlines. No calling 911. No calls at all. No emergency communication systems except some high-frequency (HF) radios. No ambulance services. No hospital equipment that works. Sewage spills out everywhere. It takes less than fifteen minutes for disease-carrying insects to swarm. To feed on piles of human waste, on garbage, on the dead . . .
Billions of gallons of water passing through America’s aqueducts surge uncontrollably. Dams burst. Mass flooding begins sweeping infrastructure and people away . . . thousands of subway trains, passenger trains, and freight trains traveling in every direction, many on the same tracks, collide with one another, crash into walls and barriers, or derail. Elevators stop between floors, or speed to the ground and crash. Satellites (including the international space station) shift out of position and begin falling to Earth. America’s fifty-three remaining nuclear power plants, are now operating on backup systems, have just begun to collectively run out of time.” (Jacobsen, 2024, pp. 264-267)
However, not all nuclear plants will be running on emergency backup systems.
Reactor Meltdowns at Nuclear Power Plants
Thousands of solid-state electronic components (control units, motor-driven pumps, motor-operated valves, temperature and pressure sensors, rectifiers, inverters, switches, etc.) are required to monitor, control, and safely operate nuclear reactors. These components are found throughout the various parts of the active Emergency Core Cooling Systems at each nuclear reactor; many are also found within the Emergency Diesel Generators and Battery Banks that make up the Emergency Power Systems at each nuclear power plant (which are required to safely shut down and cool the nuclear reactors when offsite electrical power is lost at the plant). All of these solid-state components lack specialized shielding to protect them from the high voltages and currents created by EMP E1.
Figure 4: 26 Commercial Nuclear Reactors are located in circled red areas that experience peak EMP E1 incident fields equal to 12,500 volts per meter to 50,000 volts per meter.[16]Image derived from U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. (2023). “Map of Power Reactor Sites”, retrieved August 29, 2024, from https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/map-power-rea...s.html
26 nuclear power plants are located in EMP E1-saturated areas (Figure 4) where damaging electric voltages and currents are induced within the unshielded cables, lines, and solid-state electronic equipment located inside buildings and structures. E1 also strikes the many above-ground power lines, phone lines, cables, etc., that enter and exit these plants.
The moment the E1 waves knocked out the grids, the loss of off-site electric power triggered an emergency shutdown of every nuclear reactor operating in the U.S. No electricity is required for an emergency shutdown. However, emergency cooling systems must begin cooling the nuclear reactor core within seconds following an emergency shutdown. Otherwise, the hundreds of millions of watts of heat that remain in the reactor core[17]Clarke, M., (June 2020). “Battery Backups for Nuclear Power Plants” M.E.T.T.S. Consulting Engineers”. https://www.metts.com.au/battery-backups-for-nuclear...s.html (the heat is produced by the highly radioactive fuel rods) will cause the reactor core to overheat to the point of self-destruction in a matter of several hours or less.[18]Cook, D. Greene, S. Harrington, R. Hodge, S. Yue, D. (1981). “Station Blackout at Brown’s Ferry Unit One – Accident Sequence Analysis”, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Prepared for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Table 9.7
In a millionth of a second, the damaging voltages and currents created by the EMP E1 wave disables the emergency power systems within the nuclear power plants where the reactors are located. The solid-state controls in the gigantic Emergency Diesel Generators no longer work; the AC/DC interfaces located between the Battery Banks and plant electric systems have failed. There is no longer any off-site or on-site electric power available to run the active Emergency Core Cooling Systems, which would not work anyway because the solid-state electronics found in the motor-operated pumps and valves are damaged and disabled.
The loss of the active Emergency Core Cooling Systems and Emergency Power Systems has suddenly made it impossible for these 26 nuclear reactors to remove the massive heat remaining within their reactor cores following their emergency shutdowns. A forced flow of water cannot be resumed through the reactor core (hundreds of thousands of gallons of water are pumped through the core each minute during normal operation).
The failure of these emergency systems will rapidly lead to reactor core meltdowns at each of these nuclear power plants – as it did in 2011 at Fukushima when 3 reactors melted down following the loss of all offsite and onsite electric power .[19]Behling, N., Williams, M., Behling, T., Shunsuke, M. (March 2019). “Aftermath of Fukushima: Avoiding another major nuclear disaster”. Elsevier, Energy Policy, Volume 126, pp. 411-420. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pi...307663 Because no operating U.S. nuclear power plants are designed or retrofitted to withstand the effects of EMP, they became radiological targets of opportunity for an EMP attack (this is also the case for the nuclear plants of many other nations).
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) continues to maintain that EMP poses no danger to the nuclear power plants that it regulates – although it has never conducted the comprehensive testing necessary to validate its theories. (In 2019, the Electromagnetic Defense Task Force of the U.S. Air Force forced the NRC to respond to their concerns about the lack of EMP protection at U.S. nuclear power plants, but the NRC declined to take any actions to protect U.S. nuclear power plants from EMP[20]Stuckenberg, D., Woolsey, J., DeMaio, D. (August 2019). “Electromagnetic Defense Task Force (EDTF) Report 2.0, LeMay Paper No. 4”, Air University Press, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, Appendix 1, pp. 53.
https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/Portals/10/AUPress/...19.PDF).
Spent Fuel Pool Fires at Nuclear Power Plants
A complete loss of off-site and on-site electrical power at a nuclear power plant also makes it impossible to operate the large cooling systems required to remove the heat from the spent fuel pools, where highly radioactive used or “spent” uranium fuel rods are stored. These pools contain some of the largest concentrations of radioactivity on the planet.[21]Alvarez, R. (May 2011). “Spent Nuclear Fuel Pools in the US: Reducing the Deadly Risks of Storage”, Institute for Policy Studies, Washington D.C., p. 1. https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1209/ML120970249.pdf Intensely radioactive spent fuel also generates a huge amount of heat that must continuously be removed from the pool or else the water in the pool will heat to the point of boiling.
Without a working cooling system, diesel pumps must be used to put cool water into the spent fuel pools. Even if working pumps can be found, nuclear power plants are only required to have a 7-day supply of diesel fuel on hand[22]Nuclear Regulatory Commission. (March 2007). Standard Review Plan, NUREG-0800, 9.5.4. Emergency Diesel Fuel Oil Storage and Transfer System. https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML0706/ML070680388.pdf (if the diesel fuel is stored underground, it is unlikely there will be working pumps to move the fuel to the generators following the EMP attack). The meltdown of the reactor and the corresponding release of radiation, combined with a limited supply of diesel fuel, will make it impossible to prevent the water in these pools from boiling off in a matter of days.
When falling water levels in the pools eventually expose the spent fuel to steam and air, this causes the rods to heat to the point of rupture or ignition and release enormous amounts of radioactivity.[23]Alvarez, R. Beyea, J. Janberg, K. Kang, J. Lyman, E. Macfarlane, A. Thompson, G. von Hippel, F. (2003). “Reducing the Hazards from Stored Spent Power-Reactor Fuel in the United States”, Science and Global Security, 11:1–51, p. 2. https://scienceandglobalsecurity.org/archive/sgs11al...ez.pdf Fuel rods recently removed from the reactor core begin burning at temperatures exceeding 1800 degrees Fahrenheit, and the fire spreads to older rods in the pool. The radioactivity released from one spent fuel pool fire can release dozens of times more radiation than was released by the meltdown of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.[24]Alvarez, R. (June 25, 2013). “Reducing the hazards of high-level radioactive waste in Southern California: Storage of spent nuclear fuel at San Onofre”, Friends of the Earth, p. 4.
Figure 5: Contamination areas from a hypothetical fire in a single high-density spent fuel pool at the Peach Bottom Nuclear Power Plant in Pennsylvania releasing 1600 PBq of Cesium-137 on four dates in 2015[25]von Hippel, F., Schoeppner, M. (August 16, 2016). “Reducing the Danger from Spent Fuel Pools”, Science and Global Security, Princeton University, p. 155. https://scienceandglobalsecurity.org/archive/sgs24vo...el.pdf
The enormous amounts of radiation released by the destroyed reactors and their 26 burning spent fuel pools will turn much of the continental U.S. into uninhabitable radioactive exclusion zones. When the 7-day supplies of diesel fuel[26]U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Standard Review Plan 9.5.4. (March 2007). “Emergency Diesel Engine Fuel Oil Storage and Transfer System Review Responsibilities”, NUREG-0800, Revision 3, p. 9.5.4-2. run out for the generators still operating at the remaining 68 U.S. commercial nuclear reactors, their spent fuel pools will also boil off, causing the spent fuel rods to self-destruct and also spread enormous quantities of radioactive fallout across the U.S.
EMP E1 Wave Begins Destruction of U.S. Power Grids
When the huge EMP E1-induced power surge struck the Extra High Voltage substations across the U.S. (Figure 6), it destroyed most of the protective solid-state relays[27]Solid-state relays are particularly vulnerable to EMP E1 (they have essentially replaced older electromechanical relays) and make up the majority of relays in Extra High Voltage substations. that shield electrical systems within the grid from damage.[28]Relays detect abnormal currents and overloads and initiate protective actions to protect the electric system from damage. Types of relays include transformer protection relays, which monitor overcurrent, overvoltage, and temperature abnormalities) and differential relays, which that act to protect transformers from internal faults. This included the relays that activated the approximately 5000 Extra High Voltage (EHV) Circuit Breakers,[29]Op. cit., “The Late-Time (E3) High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and Its Impact on the U.S. Power Grid”, p. 4-2. which provided the primary protection from damaging currents to the Large Power Transformers (LPTs).[30]Solid-state control systems were also damaged within some EHV Circuit Breakers. There are approximately 5000 EHV Circuit Breakers of 345 kilovolts (kV) and higher operating voltage in the three U.S. power grids.[31]Gilbert, J., Kappenman, J., Radasky, W. (2010). “The Late-Time (E3) High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and Its Impact on the U.S. Power Grid”, Metatech Corporation, Meta R-321, p. 4-2. https://www.futurescience.com/emp/ferc_Meta-R-321.pdf
Figure 6: 1765 Extra High Voltage Substations Exposed to E1 from the nuclear detonation over Columbus, Ohio, which are 83% of such substations in the U.S.[32]Op. cit. “The Early-Time (E1) High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and Its Impact on the U.S. Power Grid”. p. 7-20
LPTs are used at power generation facilities to increase the voltage before long-distance transmission (this reduces power loss) and then at the end of transmission lines to reduce (step down) the voltage when power is distributed to American households, agriculture, and industry. LPTs are required for the transmission of electric power in the U.S. (Figure 7). 90% of the electricity in U.S. power grids passes through aging 345 kV (345,000 volts), 500 kV, and 765 kV LPTs; there are only several thousand of these LPTs within the three U.S. national power grids.[33]Many LPTs are at the end of their life expectancy; ten years ago, the average age of installed LPTs in the United States was 38 to 40 years, with 70% of LPTs being 25 years or older. U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability. (April 2014). “Large Power Transformers and the U.S. Electric Grid”, p. v.
https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2014/04/f15/...14.pdf
Figure 7: The role of Large Power Transformers (LPTs) in the power grid. LPTs are circled in red[34]U.S.-Canada Power System Outage Task Force. (April 2004). “U.S.-Canada Power System Outage Task Force, Final Report on the August 14, 2003 Blackout in the United States and Canada: Causes and Recommendations”, Figure 2.1, p. 5
The E1-induced power surge destroyed the series capacitors on power transmission lines that protected LPTs from dangerous power surges.[35]Series capacitors are commonly used in the Western power grid and are less common in the Eastern and Texas power grids. The electronics within the LPT cooling systems were also damaged,[36]Baker, G., Webb, I., Burkes, K., Cordaro, J. (2021). “Large Transformer Criticality, Threats, and Opportunities”, Journal of Critical Infrastructure Policy, Volume 2, Number 2. https://centerforsecuritypolicy.org/wp-content/uploa...ON.pdf and tiny holes were burned in the insulation of the windings within the LPTs.[37]Op. Cit. “The Late-Time (E3) High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and Its Impact on the U.S. Power Grid”, p. 7-34. This left the LPTs susceptible to internal short circuits and overheating. In other words, the EMP E1 waves disabled the safety systems required to protect LPTs, as well as damaging some LPTs.[38]Over the Horizon. (August 27, 2019). “Electromagnetic Pulse Threats to America’s Electric Grid: Counterpoints to Electric Power Research Institute Positions”, U.S. Air Force Air University Foundation, retrieved September 16, 2024,
https://othjournal.com/2019/08/27/electromagnetic-pu...tions/ This left the LPTs vulnerable to the effects of the following EMP E3B waves (internal short circuits and massive overheating).
EMP E3B Waves Wreck the EHV Circuit Breakers and LPTs – U.S. Grids Go Down for a Year or Longer
Scientists have confirmed, by “all means of measurement”,[39]Gilbert, J., Kappenman, J., Radasky, W. (2010). “The Late-Time (E3) High- Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and Its Impact on the U.S. Power Grid”, Metatech Corporation, Meta R-321. P. 3-2. that the threat potential posed by EMP E3 exceeds the intended stress limit the aging U.S. power network is designed and tested to withstand.
Because the U.S. has failed to shield its electric power grids from EMP, all the 765 kV LPTs, two-thirds of the 500 kV LPTs, and at least 20% of the 345 kV LPTs are quite vulnerable to the effects of EMP E3.[40]These are single-phase LPTs. Both the LPTs and the EHV Circuit Breakers that protect them are damaged, disabled, and destroyed by the combined effects of the E1 and E3B waves.
Figure 11: Moving a 460,000-pound Large Power Transformer. The combined weight of the transformer and equipment required to move it was 944,800 pounds.[41]Omega Morgan, “Going Heavy for a Transformer Transport Near Portland, Oregon”, retrieved September 11, 2024.
https://www.omegamorgan.com/case-studies/specialized...regon/ LPTs cannot be quickly installed even after their replacements are manufactured and delivered to the U.S.
The EMP E3B waves induce Direct Current (DC) within long power transmission lines as well as in the Earth itself. The loss of the protective relays (following the E1 waves) allows direct currents of hundreds to thousands of amps to flow into EHV Circuit Breakers and LPTs.[42]Windings capable of carrying up to 3,000 Amps of alternating current can be destroyed by geomagnetic direct currents of only about 300 Amps. See Tennessee Valley Authority, (December 2010). “Initial Review of Extreme Geomagnetic Storms to TVA Operations”: Findings and Recommendations”, p. 5.
https://www.governmentattic.org/31docs/EMPriskTVA_2010.pdf The EHV Circuit Breakers explode and LPTs overheat and self-destruct. LPTs often contain many thousands of gallons of oil for cooling and high-voltage insulation purposes; this oil becomes fuel for generating large fires that rapidly engulf major portions of the substation and/or power plant facility where the LPTs are located.[43]Op. cit., “The Late-Time (E3) High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and Its Impact on the U.S. Power Grid”, p. 5-1.
The loss of LPTs and EHV Circuit Breakers in the power grids leaves most of the United States without electric power for a year or likely longer. This is because EHV Circuit Breakers[44]There are approximately 5000 345 kV and higher EHV Circuit Breakers operating in the U.S., see Gilbert, J., Kappenman, J., Radasky, W. (2010). “The Late-Time (E3) High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and Its Impact on the U.S. Power Grid”, Metatech Corporation, Meta R-321. P. 4-2.
https://www.futurescience.com/emp/ferc_Meta-R-321.pdf and LPTs are not stockpiled. It currently takes 40 to 60 weeks to replace EHV Circuit Breakers.[45]Colthorpe, A. (September 21, 2023). “Lithium Supply Chain Much Improved but transformers and other components a headache for BESS industry”, Energy Storage News.
https://www.energy-storage.news/lithium-supply-chain...ously. LPTs must be custom-designed and manufactured and about 80% of LPTs are made overseas.[46]LPTs each weigh between 200 and 400 tons and must be shipped by sea and moving them to their final destination is quite difficult. LPTs can’t be moved by rail (100 tons is the normal weight limit for transport by train). LPTs are often too heavy to cross bridges; traffic lights and power lines must be moved for them to pass. Even under normal circumstances, this is a complex process, and trying to move them in post-apocalyptic circumstances – through the U.S. following a year without electric power – could prove to be next to impossible. The current wait time for LPT manufacture is 80 to 210 weeks.[47]Jacobs, K., Barr, A., Chopra, S., Boucher, B. (April 2, 2024). “Supply shortages and an inflexible market give rise to high power transformer lead times”, Wood Mackenzie. https://www.woodmac.com/news/opinion/supply-shortage...times/ LPTs typically weigh 670,000 to 820,000 pounds[48]Distributech International, Powergrid International, Dec 21, 2022, “Inaction on electric transformer crisis adds reliability concerns, APPA warns”.
https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/power-grid/outa...warns/, cannot be airlifted or transported by train (the heaviest load a railroad car typically carries is 200,000 pounds[49]Op. cit., “The Late-Time (E3) High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and Its Impact on the U.S. Power Grid”, p. 1-3.), and are extremely difficult to transport on land (Figure 11).
Societal Collapse
It is the dead of winter, in the middle of a major winter storm, and electricity is no longer available for most Americans, who now find themselves in dark, freezing cold homes where nothing works anymore. No lights, heat, running water, phone, internet, TV, and soon, no food. If their cars can still start, they will find the highways blocked by other vehicles disabled by the initial E1 wave. Gasoline can no longer be pumped out of underground tanks. Food deliveries to the cities stop. People attempt to flee from regions receiving massive radioactive fallout that are downwind from destroyed nuclear reactors and spent fuel pools. Society collapses as millions of starving and freezing people do anything to try to survive.
The Chairman of a Congressional Committee that investigated the effects of a nuclear EMP attack on the United States has estimated that most Americans would not survive an EMP attack that knocked out U.S. power grids and disabled critical national infrastructure.[50]Graham, Dr. William R., Chair, Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack. (July 10, 2008). “THREAT POSED BY ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE (EMP) ATTACK”, COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS.
http://highfrontier.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/...-9.pdf Despite such warnings, the United States has not acted to shield its power grids and critical national infrastructure – including its nuclear power plants – from the effects of EMP.
The U.S. Can Protect its Power Grids and Critical National Infrastructure
Technology exists that could effectively protect the U.S. power grid from destruction. Likewise, the vulnerable components in U.S. critical national infrastructure can also be shielded to a significant degree from EMP (this also applies to the vulnerable components of the active Emergency Core Cooling Systems and Emergency Power Systems at nuclear reactors). Several detailed technical papers explain how this can be accomplished.[51]Kappenman, J. (January 2010), “Low-Frequency Protection Concepts for the Electric Power Grid: Geomagnetically Induced Current (GIC) and E3 HEMP Mitigation”, Metatech Corporation, Meta-R-322. https://www.ferc.gov/sites/default/files/2020-05/fer...22.pdf[52]The Foundation for Resilient Societies. (September 2020) “Estimating the Cost of Protecting the U.S. Electric Grid from Electromagnetic Pulse.
https://www.resilientsocieties.org/uploads/5/4/0/0/5...se.pdf[53]International Electrotechnical Commission. (May 17, 2017). “Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) – Part 5-10: Installation and mitigation guidelines – Guidance on the protection of facilities against HEMP and IEMI
https://cdn.standards.iteh.ai/samples/21920/3f5cc6cf...17.pdf[54]Radasky, W. (October 31, 2018). “Protecting Industry from HEMP and IEMI”, In Compliance Magazine. https://incompliancemag.com/article/protecting-indus...-hemp- and-iemi/[55]Radasky, W., Savage, E. (Jan 2010). “High-Frequency Protection Concepts for the Electric Power Grid”, Metatech Corp, Meta-R-324.
https://www.ferc.gov/sites/default/files/2020-05/fer...24.pdf Cost estimates to add this protection are in the tens of billions of dollars – a small fraction of what the U.S. spends each year on its defense budget.
The U.S. military long ago acted to shield its weapons and communication systems from EMP, however, all attempts to mandate U.S. critical national infrastructure be shielded from EMP have been defeated. Twice – in 2013 and 2015 – Bills mandating EMP protection failed to come to a final vote in Congress because the nuclear and electrical utilities lobbied against them. Their opposition arose from the wording in the bills that required the utilities to pay for the shielding.
Consequently, no significant steps have yet been taken to install equipment and modifications that would protect the U.S. national electric grid and U.S. critical national infrastructure from EMP.
Author’s note: If one or more Super-EMP weapons[56]Pry, P. (January 2021). “Russia: EMP Threat”. EMP Task Force on National and Homeland Security. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/trecms/pdf/AD1124730.pdf were used in an attack against the United States, the effects of the attack could be significantly more severe than those described in this paper. For a more detailed explanation, see Nuclear High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse: A Mortal Threat to the U.S. Power Grid and U.S. Nuclear Power Plants.[57]Starr, S. (2023). Nuclear High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse: A Mortal Threat to the U.S. Power Grid and U.S Nuclear Power Plants. Rethink Government, ISBN-10: 8793987357
Notes
[1] Federal government of the United States, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
[2] U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “U.S. Electricity Grid and Markets”, retrieved September 1, 2024 from https://www.epa.gov/green-power-markets/us-electricity-grid-markets
[3] Mizokami, K. (May 24, 2018). “Russian Sub Unleashes Four Nuclear missiles in Less Than 20 Seconds”. Popular Mechanics,
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a20898184/russian-sub-four-nuclear-missiles-20-seconds/
[4] Gronlund, L., Wright, D. (1992). “Depressed trajectory SLBs: A technical evaluation and arms control possibilities”. Science and Global Security, 3, no. 2. Pp. 101-109. https://scienceandglobalsecurity.org/archive/1992/06/depressed_trajectory_slbms_a_t.html
[5] Thomas, W. (March 1, 2022). “Physicists Argue US IBM Defenses are Unreliable”. FYI: Science Policy News.
https://ww2.aip.org/fyi/2022/physicists-argue-us-icbm-defenses-are-unreliable
[6] Gilbert, J., Kappenman, J., Radasky, W. (2010). “The Late-Time (E3) High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and Its Impact on the U.S. Power Grid”, Metatech Corporation, Meta R-321, Section 3.
http://www.futurescience.com/emp/ferc_Meta-R-321.pdf
[7] Image derived from Savage, E., Gilbert, J., Radasky, W. (2010). “The Early-Time (E1) High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and Its Impact on the U.S. Power Grid”. Metatech Corporation, Meta R-320, p. 7-20 and p. 2-30, also https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=183521
[8] The worst-case HEMP E1 used by the military in MIL-STD-188-125-1 for an E1-induced powerline current of 5,000 amperes. The characteristic impedance for a power line is approximately 400 ohms, thus providing a peak worst-case voltage level of 2 MV. Op. cit. “The Early-Time (E1) High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and Its Impact on the U.S. Power Grid”, p. 7-3
[9] Cybersecurity Division of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, National Coordinating Center for Communications, February 5, 2019. “Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Protection and Resilience Guidelines for Critical Infrastructure and Equipment”, version 2.2 UNCLASSIFIED, p. 29.
[10] Op. cit. “The Early-Time (E1) High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and Its Impact on the U.S. Power Grid”. p. 7-27.
[11] Op. cit. “Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Protection and Resilience Guidelines for Critical Infrastructure and Equipment”, p. 29.
[12] Orient Power Insulators, retrieved September 19, 2024.
https://www.composite-insulator.com/learn-more-about-insulator-flashover-and-how-to-prevent-insulator-flashover.html
[13] Ibid. p. 7-25
[14] Jacobsen, A. (2024). Nuclear War: A Scenario, Penguin Random House, ISBN 978-0593476093.
[15] “Russia: Nuclear Response To America Is Possible Using Super-EMP Factor”, Aleksey Vaschenko, “A Nuclear Response To America Is Possible,” Zavtra, November 1, 2006. Vaschenko, A., Belous, V. (April 13, 2007); “Preparing for the Second Coming of ‘Star Wars”, Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye translated in Russian Considers Missile Defense Response Options CEP20070413330003. Zhao Meng, Da Xinyu, and Zhang Yapu, (May 1, 2014). “Overview of Electromagnetic Pulse Weapons and Protection Techniques Against Them” Winged Missiles (PRC Air Force Engineering University
[16] Image derived from U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. (2023). “Map of Power Reactor Sites”, retrieved August 29, 2024, from https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/map-power-reactors.html
[17] Clarke, M., (June 2020). “Battery Backups for Nuclear Power Plants” M.E.T.T.S. Consulting Engineers”. https://www.metts.com.au/battery-backups-for-nuclear-power-plants.html
[18] Cook, D. Greene, S. Harrington, R. Hodge, S. Yue, D. (1981). “Station Blackout at Brown’s Ferry Unit One – Accident Sequence Analysis”, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Prepared for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Table 9.7
[19] Behling, N., Williams, M., Behling, T., Shunsuke, M. (March 2019). “Aftermath of Fukushima: Avoiding another major nuclear disaster”. Elsevier, Energy Policy, Volume 126, pp. 411-420. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301421518307663
[20] Stuckenberg, D., Woolsey, J., DeMaio, D. (August 2019). “Electromagnetic Defense Task Force (EDTF) Report 2.0, LeMay Paper No. 4”, Air University Press, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, Appendix 1, pp. 53.
https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/Portals/10/AUPress/Papers/LP_0004_ELECTROMAGNETIC_DEFENSE_TASK_FORCE_2_2019.PDF
[21] Alvarez, R. (May 2011). “Spent Nuclear Fuel Pools in the US: Reducing the Deadly Risks of Storage”, Institute for Policy Studies, Washington D.C., p. 1. https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1209/ML120970249.pdf
[22] Nuclear Regulatory Commission. (March 2007). Standard Review Plan, NUREG-0800, 9.5.4. Emergency Diesel Fuel Oil Storage and Transfer System. https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML0706/ML070680388.pdf
[23] Alvarez, R. Beyea, J. Janberg, K. Kang, J. Lyman, E. Macfarlane, A. Thompson, G. von Hippel, F. (2003). “Reducing the Hazards from Stored Spent Power-Reactor Fuel in the United States”, Science and Global Security, 11:1–51, p. 2. https://scienceandglobalsecurity.org/archive/sgs11alvarez.pdf
[24] Alvarez, R. (June 25, 2013). “Reducing the hazards of high-level radioactive waste in Southern California: Storage of spent nuclear fuel at San Onofre”, Friends of the Earth, p. 4.
[25] von Hippel, F., Schoeppner, M. (August 16, 2016). “Reducing the Danger from Spent Fuel Pools”, Science and Global Security, Princeton University, p. 155. https://scienceandglobalsecurity.org/archive/sgs24vonhippel.pdf
[26] U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Standard Review Plan 9.5.4. (March 2007). “Emergency Diesel Engine Fuel Oil Storage and Transfer System Review Responsibilities”, NUREG-0800, Revision 3, p. 9.5.4-2.
[27] Solid-state relays are particularly vulnerable to EMP E1 (they have essentially replaced older electromechanical relays) and make up the majority of relays in Extra High Voltage substations.
[28] Relays detect abnormal currents and overloads and initiate protective actions to protect the electric system from damage. Types of relays include transformer protection relays, which monitor overcurrent, overvoltage, and temperature abnormalities) and differential relays, which that act to protect transformers from internal faults.
[29] Op. cit., “The Late-Time (E3) High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and Its Impact on the U.S. Power Grid”, p. 4-2.
[30] Solid-state control systems were also damaged within some EHV Circuit Breakers.
[31] Gilbert, J., Kappenman, J., Radasky, W. (2010). “The Late-Time (E3) High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and Its Impact on the U.S. Power Grid”, Metatech Corporation, Meta R-321, p. 4-2. https://www.futurescience.com/emp/ferc_Meta-R-321.pdf
[32] Op. cit. “The Early-Time (E1) High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and Its Impact on the U.S. Power Grid”. p. 7-20
[33] Many LPTs are at the end of their life expectancy; ten years ago, the average age of installed LPTs in the United States was 38 to 40 years, with 70% of LPTs being 25 years or older. U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability. (April 2014). “Large Power Transformers and the U.S. Electric Grid”, p. v.
https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2014/04/f15/LPTStudyUpdate-040914.pdf
[34] U.S.-Canada Power System Outage Task Force. (April 2004). “U.S.-Canada Power System Outage Task Force, Final Report on the August 14, 2003 Blackout in the United States and Canada: Causes and Recommendations”, Figure 2.1, p. 5
[35] Series capacitors are commonly used in the Western power grid and are less common in the Eastern and Texas power grids.
[36] Baker, G., Webb, I., Burkes, K., Cordaro, J. (2021). “Large Transformer Criticality, Threats, and Opportunities”, Journal of Critical Infrastructure Policy, Volume 2, Number 2. https://centerforsecuritypolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/LARGE-TRANSFORMER-THREATS-OPPORTUNITIESJCIP-PUBLISHED-VERSION.pdf
[37] Op. Cit. “The Late-Time (E3) High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and Its Impact on the U.S. Power Grid”, p. 7-34.
[38] Over the Horizon. (August 27, 2019). “Electromagnetic Pulse Threats to America’s Electric Grid: Counterpoints to Electric Power Research Institute Positions”, U.S. Air Force Air University Foundation, retrieved September 16, 2024,
https://othjournal.com/2019/08/27/electromagnetic-pulse-threats-to-americas-electric-grid-counterpoints-to-electric-power-research-institute-positions/
[39] Gilbert, J., Kappenman, J., Radasky, W. (2010). “The Late-Time (E3) High- Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and Its Impact on the U.S. Power Grid”, Metatech Corporation, Meta R-321. P. 3-2.
[40] These are single-phase LPTs.
[41] Omega Morgan, “Going Heavy for a Transformer Transport Near Portland, Oregon”, retrieved September 11, 2024.
https://www.omegamorgan.com/case-studies/specialized-transportation/going-heavy-for-a-transformer-transport-near-portland-oregon/
[42] Windings capable of carrying up to 3,000 Amps of alternating current can be destroyed by geomagnetic direct currents of only about 300 Amps. See Tennessee Valley Authority, (December 2010). “Initial Review of Extreme Geomagnetic Storms to TVA Operations”: Findings and Recommendations”, p. 5.
https://www.governmentattic.org/31docs/EMPriskTVA_2010.pdf
[43] Op. cit., “The Late-Time (E3) High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and Its Impact on the U.S. Power Grid”, p. 5-1.
[44] There are approximately 5000 345 kV and higher EHV Circuit Breakers operating in the U.S., see Gilbert, J., Kappenman, J., Radasky, W. (2010). “The Late-Time (E3) High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and Its Impact on the U.S. Power Grid”, Metatech Corporation, Meta R-321. P. 4-2.
https://www.futurescience.com/emp/ferc_Meta-R-321.pdf
[45] Colthorpe, A. (September 21, 2023). “Lithium Supply Chain Much Improved but transformers and other components a headache for BESS industry”, Energy Storage News.
https://www.energy-storage.news/lithium-supply-chain-much-improved-but-transformers-and-other-components-a-headache-for-bess-industry/#:~:text=HV%20circuit%20breakers%20are%20on,versus%2010%2D40%20weeks%20previously.
[46] LPTs each weigh between 200 and 400 tons and must be shipped by sea and moving them to their final destination is quite difficult. LPTs can’t be moved by rail (100 tons is the normal weight limit for transport by train). LPTs are often too heavy to cross bridges; traffic lights and power lines must be moved for them to pass. Even under normal circumstances, this is a complex process, and trying to move them in post-apocalyptic circumstances – through the U.S. following a year without electric power – could prove to be next to impossible.
[47] Jacobs, K., Barr, A., Chopra, S., Boucher, B. (April 2, 2024). “Supply shortages and an inflexible market give rise to high power transformer lead times”, Wood Mackenzie. https://www.woodmac.com/news/opinion/supply-shortages-and-an-inflexible-market-give-rise-to-high-power-transformer-lead-times/
[48] Distributech International, Powergrid International, Dec 21, 2022, “Inaction on electric transformer crisis adds reliability concerns, APPA warns”.
https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/power-grid/outage-management/inaction-on-electric-transformer-crisis-adds-to-reliability-concerns-appa-warns/
[49] Op. cit., “The Late-Time (E3) High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and Its Impact on the U.S. Power Grid”, p. 1-3.
[50] Graham, Dr. William R., Chair, Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack. (July 10, 2008). “THREAT POSED BY ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE (EMP) ATTACK”, COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS.
http://highfrontier.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/HASC-Report-110-156-Hearing-July-10-2008-at-p.-9.pdf
[51] Kappenman, J. (January 2010), “Low-Frequency Protection Concepts for the Electric Power Grid: Geomagnetically Induced Current (GIC) and E3 HEMP Mitigation”, Metatech Corporation, Meta-R-322. https://www.ferc.gov/sites/default/files/2020-05/ferc_meta-r-322.pdf
[52] The Foundation for Resilient Societies. (September 2020) “Estimating the Cost of Protecting the U.S. Electric Grid from Electromagnetic Pulse.
https://www.resilientsocieties.org/uploads/5/4/0/0/54008795/estimating_the_cost_of_protecting_the_u.s._electric_grid_from_electromagnetic_pulse.pdf
[53] International Electrotechnical Commission. (May 17, 2017). “Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) – Part 5-10: Installation and mitigation guidelines – Guidance on the protection of facilities against HEMP and IEMI
https://cdn.standards.iteh.ai/samples/21920/3f5cc6cf87a2447298b976481e7a7ccc/IEC-TS-61000-5-10-2017.pdf
[54] Radasky, W. (October 31, 2018). “Protecting Industry from HEMP and IEMI”, In Compliance Magazine. https://incompliancemag.com/article/protecting-industry-from-hemp- and-iemi/
[55] Radasky, W., Savage, E. (Jan 2010). “High-Frequency Protection Concepts for the Electric Power Grid”, Metatech Corp, Meta-R-324.
https://www.ferc.gov/sites/default/files/2020-05/ferc_meta-r-324.pdf
[56] Pry, P. (January 2021). “Russia: EMP Threat”. EMP Task Force on National and Homeland Security. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/trecms/pdf/AD1124730.pdf
[57] Starr, S. (2023). Nuclear High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse: A Mortal Threat to the U.S. Power Grid and U.S Nuclear Power Plants. Rethink Government, ISBN-10: 8793987357
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Just when I was tired of all the bitching and moaning. Finally a practical plan for world peace! Wipe out the CIA impunity regime with 3 shots. Let’s do it!
Yeah, this would not only wipe out the National Intelligence Military Security State proper, but all of its IT/cyber/private contractor tentacles. The only other way this will happen is the dollar ceases to be the global reserve currency and the Empire of Debt disintegrates. But selfishly, I hope this all happens after I shuffle off this mortal coil.
Eric Dollard On Making Power Grid More Vulnerable to EMPs
Video Link
(21:21 min)
Likely Harmful Major Changes Being Made to Power Grid per Eric Dollard
https://wp.toxi.com/2025/02/likely-harmful-major-changes-being-made-to-power-grid-per-eric-dollard/
“When the long-proven delta-wye magnetic isolation is foolishly defeated by metallic bypass (at unwarranted great cost), all previously semi-isolated local ground ‘pools’ will become galvanically interconnected, allowing future lightning-strike spikes, EMP/CME events or other catastrophic high-tension failures to cause much more unbuffered devastation and meanwhile for the ever-increasing “dirty power” toxic harmonics to spread much less impeded.” — MyklBren
ERIC DOLLARD reveals sly changes being made to the power grid: The connecting of grounds across primary and secondary windings of main utility transformers and changing from our present true three-phase power into three independent single-phase systems (delta+wye standard being changed to wye+wye).
This major change will weaken the resilience of the power grid tremendously on purpose, allowing (and creating) more electrosmog noise and harmful harmonics, making it generally more dangerous and susceptible to lightning strikes, power surges, EMP attack, and sunspot / CME damage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RglH7EIP77g
Video Link(17:45 into video)
This information was first posted in 2015. It is unclear (Feb 2025) the status or progress made to date.
That’s the debate in Washington at the moment: Nuclear War before Bankruptcy or afterwards?
I see you have no children.
N. Joseph Potts, 7.9 billion people from the civilized world outvoted your children. The CIA impunity regime has got to go, whatever it takes. The world will be a better place.
Your children are free to storm Langley and lynch the psycho fuckers before they force a nuke war. They are more likely to survive that way. So best of luck to Nignogue Joseph Potts II!
Threat of EMP attacks on US transmission has been overstated:
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/epri-threat-of-emp-attacks-on-us-transmission-has-been-overstated/553795/
Better to be bludgeoned by EMP and die relatively quick than languish as a lobotomized slave termite under Zio-Globalism.
This horror has been known for decades. If it happens there is one thing that will surely still function: the trusty revolver. We who know will probably use it. Do we have the right or perhaps duty to take the spouse and children with us?
If nuclear weapons exist, why haven’t the authorities hardened the infrastructure for the event of an EMP blast and why hasn’t anyone used an EMP blast to knock out an enemy’s infrastructure, even on a relatively small level? Israel, India and Pakistan are all led by batshit crazy leaders and they are all supposedly nuclear powers, why haven’t they used them?
Even if nuclear weapons don’t exist, it would make sense to harden all electronics, including household computers and personal items such as radios and cellphones in the even of a burst of electromagnetic radiation from the sun (which is real) similar to the Carrington Event of 1859 which caused outages in telegraph lines.
The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) receives funding from the Department of Energy and it also partners with the electric utilities that have lobbied against (and killed) two Congressional bills that would have mandated EMP protection for the grid. I don’t consider the EPRI to be an unbiased source.
An EPRI report (referred to in your link) greatly minimized the dangers that EMP poses to the grid and critical national infrastructure. Many experts disagree with this report, including officers of the U.S. Air Force, who formed the Electromagnetic Defense Task Force (EDTF). The EDTF issued a comprehensive rejection of conclusions of the EPRI, see https://othjournal.com/2019/08/27/electromagnetic-pulse-threats-to-americas-electric-grid-counterpoints-to-electric-power-research-institute-positions/
The EDTF previously issued two reports (in 2018 and 2019) that identified the EMP risk to both nuclear reactors and their spent fuel pools, and called for comprehensive testing to prove the electronics and emergency power systems at the plants were safe from EMP. The NRC was forced to consider the EDTF concerns but maintained its position and did no testing.
2018 EDTF report: https://media.defense.gov/2018/Nov/28/2002067172/-1/-1/0/LP_0002_Demaio_Electromagnetic_Defense_TASK_Force.PDF
2019 EDTF report: https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/Portals/10/AUPress/Papers/LP_0004_ELECTROMAGNETIC_DEFENSE_TASK_FORCE_2_2019.PDF
Great idea. Instead of draining the swamp just vaporize it. What a big beautiful plan. 🙂
I just read few paragraphs before realizing this is sizable article that will take considerable time for me to read and digest. Question: What qualification does this author have to write about such technological subject? It would be good to know.
I jumped to ChatGTP and asked: “when Japan suffered nuclear attack from the USA, what effect did the EMP from the nukes have on Japanese infrastructure?”
Next question: What evidence do we have about damage to electrical grid or electric or electronic devices from EMP’s from nuclear blasts?
Fair enough.
So it looks like I need to move to Minot North Dakota and become a prepper
I have been writing about nuclear weapons and nuclear war for 21 years. I was first published by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in 2004 (I was a co-author); other articles followed, including an article written with Theodore Postol and Lynn Eden that describes the effects of an 800-kiloton warhead detonated above Manhattan. I have appeared at the UN as an expert witness speaking on launch-on-warning and the effects of nuclear war for Switzerland and New Zealand. During the last 8 years, I have taught a class at the University of Missouri on the environmental, health, and social effects of nuclear weapons.
But rather than question if I am qualified to write about EMP, why not take the time to look at the 57 references I provide in the text. They are put there to substantiate the statements that I make and allow readers to get additional information on the point in question.
If you are wanting to learn about possible EMP effects on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I advise you to look further than a ChatGPT reply. Nuclear EMP is produced by detonations at ground level or a mile above, but it has a very limited range of effect; it is a nuclear detonation *above the atmosphere* that produces the type of EMP that I describe here, which blankets hundreds of thousands of miles.
To maximize the EMP E1 wave, which wrecks solid-state electronics, the burst should not be higher than 100 miles or so (62 miles is the optimum height); war planners pick 106 miles to also maximize the E3B wave, which is what wrecks the High Voltage Circuit Breakers and Large Power Transformers.
If you want to learn more about the Soviet atmospheric tests that occurred immediately before the signing of the Atmospheric Test Ban Treaty, which were used to study EMP, buy my book:
Nuclear High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse: A Mortal Threat to the U.S. Power Grid and U.S. Nuclear Power Plants
The sun in a not particularly bad mood could do almost the same.
A carringto event mappens every 200 to 500 years and its bigger brother the miyaki event between every 400 to 2500 years.
And it WILL happen, just a matter of time.
Have a nice day
I’m a child of the 70’s/80’s. Nuclear war didn’t seem like a reality even though we had constant propaganda about the possibility of it (The Day After, WarGames, The Fourth Protocol, et al.).
Strangely, in our present day we have almost zero propaganda about the possibility of nuclear war even though the destructive capabilities— and especially delivery system— far exceed those of four decades ago.
Back in the 80’s there weren’t Sarmats with a dozen hypersonic glide vehicles carrying thermonuclear warheads. I understand one Sarmat can wipe out a land mass the size of France.
FWIW, IMO the REAL Doctor Strangelove was Edward Teller.
I have listened to Dr. Teller hold forth on his favorite topic, nuclear weapons, at LLNL, many years ago. Admittance to the lecture required a “Q” clearance.
This is exciting stuff, and while I’ve heard about it for decades, it still begs the one, very obvious question:
Then why hasn’t anyone ever done it? Or, why haven’t we, or anyone for that matter, ever done it to any other country?
It just seems like we, or somebody, would have done it by now, somewhere.
But nope, nada, never, not once.
Why?
Perhaps an enemy is worried about them ballistic missile subs that are out there
Ideally, Israel will do this using nuclear material they stole from the US and modified subs given to them by the cuckold Germans, then the US subs will vaporize Russia. This enables Israel to have the ol’ “Let’s you and him fight” and eliminate a whole bunch of White people.
It really is a pretty solid plan, if you think about it
How much would it cost to build those three nukes plus delivery system? I am considering starting a GoFundMe page.
They have to establish Greater Israel first, because currently, the Jewish regime depends upon the US/whites to continue to exist. Greater Israel is their plan to outlive the host they have parasitized.
Exotic way of stating modern society is BRITTLE but people think it is so robust
There is a battery hen life whereas 80 years ago it was free-range
People are trapped in a Matrix not thinking it is energy that makes it a sustained delusion
Nuclear weapons are a fiction.
There was no nuclear fallout in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. People started rebuilding the week after.
Nuclear bombs =/same as Fake moon landing
Both lies.
http://biblicisminstitute.wordpress.com/2014/07/17/puzzled-scientists/
Vacuum tube electronics.
Also the best Faraday cage in your house is likely the microwave. Not that your smartphone will be any good without base stations, but at least you can play candy crush while waiting for industry to start up to sell us all “emp proof” appliances.
Make sure that microwave is properly grounded.
Also anyone can build a Faraday cage easily and cheaply.
Uh I don’t know if that’s a place to be when things kick off.
Unless you prefer that it’s quick?
Hi Steven, one question.
Jew, or not jew?
Video Link
No.
literally no one cares
except israeli subversives and indian scammers
Since the damage scenario described in this article presumes both willful intent to destroy as well as negligence to protect, it is more interesting to read about the adverse effects of potential doomsday events that can occur in nature, with low probability but little prior warning, for instance massive explosive eruptions of prominent stratovolcanoes, such as Mt. Rainier (4392 m) in Washington, or Mt. Teide (3715 m) on the Canary Island of Tenerife, which could have a significant impact on even more people, due to atmospheric darkening, and spreading tidal waves in coastal regions.
This certainly seems like a much more humane solution to killing off or disabling Fatmerica than reducing the number of inhabitants with painful and deadly heat and gamma radiation. Let’s hope when the push comes to shove from the (((usual suspects))), the Russians and Ching-Chongs prefer to use this gentler method of nuclear devastation, which also happens to be cheaper and much more cost-effective.
However, when dumping nukes on Shitrahell, please use oversized gamma radiation and fusion devices at ground level. Thanking you in advance Vladimir.
Correct. But Ms. Jacobson Mossad Spy girl gets to interview specialists and peek around our national security systems as a “journalist”, report her findings back to Israel, and then publish and sell her fear porn on the side. Nice gig.
https://www.jfeed.com/news-israel/sngste
Thanks. I had never considered this as a possibility.
For everyone else:. Start with water. They sell 2-5 gallon containers that can be stacked. Then get water purification tablets, some kind of bbq grill and charcoal or whatever. Kerosene heaters, kerosene. Old time trailer trash will be at an advantage. Do you people know what a septic system is? Some property with a well and septic system combo would be nearly perfect, even more if you get a pellet stove. Seems west is best. Oh, and if you can’t avoid driving – something pre- computer chips.
The most enlightening book is not mentioned.
The Effects of Nuclear Weapons (758 pages)
https://archive.org/details/effectsofnuclear0000samu/page/n1/mode/1up
First published in 1950, many times revised, STILL in print, STILL sold on Amazon
If you go to the penultimate page there is a paper pocket NUCLEAR BOMB EFFECTS COMPUTER, COST $1. Which is a circular slide rule calculating radiation level, overpressure, EMP and other such similar useful things. I guess thus enlightened and equipped with circular slide rule even DUCK & COVER could be fun.
Video Link
Boo. Baaad humor. But in that vein:
Phone ring in the bunker.
General T.N. Prisoners. “Who did it!?”
“General, sir. The decrypts are done. It was Israel all right. They call it Operation Three Fried Christs and the Five Hellements.”
General Prisoners. “God damnnn… You here that Han? JP betrayed both of us.”
General Han Bin, from his bunker. “Yes. We are in agreement. Africa for us. The Americas are for you. And Eurasia we split down the middle. Now let’s remove the parasite, once and for all.””
Apparently not happening frequently enough to keep the Earth’s human population down at a steady state of 500 million. I guess that this one design flaw falsifies the anthropic principle.
The missing photo
Lol, loser.
Asking an AI instead of doing the research yourself, what a good sherp you are.
A truly instructive article although much of the technical details escaped me. The scary part of this piece is the temptation to seek remedial or protective measures against atmospheric nuclear detonations. One would think that the futility of such measures would instead encourage elite rulers to pursue a global nuclear free option. But leaders are too obtuse, egotistical and greedy to give credence to nuclear-free options.
I have only one minor criticism of the article: knew of the mechanism but had not known of the E1, E2, E3A, E3B classification. It is from an IEC standard. The article at the link below gives a good concise explanation (except for the E3A, E3B difference).
https://www.futurescience.com/emp/E1-E2-E3.html
As for timing, so am I, but did not share your thinking. Even by (I think) the late ’70s, the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R., at least, had MIRVs (look it up), which can have much the same effect.
Well, that’s started the week off cheerfully!
Anyone know anything about this??
Video Link
Interesting topic which has been discussed for many decades. 1. For the America haters out there, Israel Europe Russia and China don’t use electricity? Be careful what you wish for. 2. An overlooked problem with an EMP besides famine, food production and distribution and energy production and distribution is the fact that nuclear power stations would lose their ability to run generators to keep the core from melting. Chernobyl, Fukashima, etc. How many of these plants exist around the world? Radiation, the gift that keeps on giving. I’m sure the “elite” think they can ride it out in their bunkers, but they don’t seem to realize that it would probably be about 24 thousand years for the radioactive backround to subside. Their bunkers will be their tombs, lol. Famine will take care of most of the useless eaters after the markets have been looted, then cannabilism will set in. For those with some basic knowledge of farming, animal husbandry, carpentry, if they can find a suitable place to try and survive may survive. Maybe Patagonia, Antarctica, etc. This problem won’t go away in anyones lifetime but take thousands of years to ameliorate. Maybe thats a good thing, no more outsiders with easy money and slick tongues disrupting everyones life. Small communities of like minded people living normal lives again, where men act like men and women and children behave themselves because they would perish without the mans protection. Again, for those of you wishing this on the U.S. I have one question, you don’t use electricity? Be careful what you wish for.
I will take the pain. Small price to pay for killing the monster.
You sound like a USian.
Then guys with guns kill you and enjoy the fruit of your foresight.
Spoken like a true convert to evil Islam. You’re more devilish than Mohammed. What’s wrong with you man? The FBI needs to knock on your door and haul your Kabba Stone worshipping arse to the Gitmo for some waterboarding, Pronto!
Ah, a new and very clever narrative strategy is hatched. Since everything tried so far has blown up in our faces and helped expose our true masters and their satanic objectives, let’s now start pointing out and exaggerating America’s vulnerabilities and use the ensuing fear stampede to proactively launch unprovoked nuclear annihilation assaults on all our chosen enemies. Clever indeed folks.
Shit, it took 8 comments before the Jew-haters weighed in?
You crackers should be ashamed…
You must be some sort of masochist, humiliating yourself literally daily on this site.
Maybe next you’d like to expound on the earth being flat and 5000 years old.
People with your level of stupidity need to be euthanized.
My humble abode is near to a heavily wooded area cut by a small river. Three miles north is thinly inhabited countryside.
If total shit goes down, I feel I can survive for some time. I got water and wood for fuel, a kitchen garden and extra supplies. I am not a SM addict and my cell phone is hardly used.
However if the conflict is nuclear , that’s another story. The pain will be felt way beyond the impact area, in Mexico, Central America and Canada.
The chaos will be in the big cities. One can imagine millions bottled up in an urban area without power, food and water.
Politicians playing their games never consider this and thus exercise prudence. One day the violence the US uses overseas is going to come home big time ! LA is just a taste.
Unlike Third Worlders, when bombs fall, most Americans will die from the inability to adapt to primitive and survival living.
Every day I pray for this, the only thing that will save White America
Nothing is more important than your personal comfort, right faggot? Exactly why we are in this nightmare.
Pellet stoves need electricity, dipshit
Jan 12, 2023 Nuclear War is the Ultimate Crime Against Humanity
Explosive power is only one way to describe the difference between conventional and nuclear weapons. The nuclear weapon is like a piece of the Sun. When it explodes, the surface of the fireball it creates is hotter than the surface of the Sun, so anyone close to it is going to be vaporized, and it will ignite fires over large distances.
The Decision To Drop The Bomb (1965)
Combines historic film clips, an analysis of the facts behind the decision to drop the atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, and personal interviews with the men who helped make the decision in an attempt to answer questions about how and why the decision was made.
Its always about America.. the victims of the world. Everything is whats happening to America.
The biggest criminal and user of weapons and wars is America under its evil leadership which its people, or most of them have supported or so it seems.
let’s not forget who destroyed japan.
when, we as a people anywhere in the world stay quiet, then we are supporting oppression.
Started with destroying native Americans and their way of life and its carried on from there world wide.
We need to unite as a people all over the world.
when we can do that then we can build better world, one free of these evils creations.
Don’t lose heart-and think everything is despair, for those of you who have studied religions, scriptures and prophecies we know there will be a golden age too.
Well, the human body’s nervous system is electro chemical so I can’t understand why these electronic impulses wouldn’t kill people, dogs, cats, and pigeons. Anyone with a pace maker would also die.
Mid size family farms were plentiful all over the USA until WW II but if any of these still exist (perhaps among the Amish), these people will be just fine with wood burning stoves for heat and kitchen, hand pump for well water, and candle and oil lamps for illumination. No Telly, radio nor internet means entertainment will be guitar, fiddle, harmonica, and tin whistle.
Any emergency generator powered by natural gas or propane that had been protected by 1/8 inch of lead will start up and begin the rebuilding of society.
There’s zero need to launch nukes in order to create the chaos of an EMP. All a hostile actor needs to do is execute a coordinated attack on the electric grid (and perhaps other utilities like water) using both drones with lengths of conductive cables attached combined a network hack to compromise software and hardware.
No submarines, no nukes, low budget.
Take down the grid simultaneously in a few major US cities and after a few days the entire train goes off the rails as the stock market implodes and life instantly gets very spicy as the economic conditions required for mass violence happen.
To understand the reason why this would be a good thing, one should read Ted Kazinski’s book, “Industrial Society and It’s Future.” Remember, this book was written in the mid 80s, but boy oh boy does it apply to current events.
Then, to understand survival in the exact scenario, one should read “One Second After,” by William R. Forstchen. An easy read, but one that you won’t put down. The book describes this exact scenario, and one that includes a forward explaining how he’s tried to get govt to listen that this is a REAL threat to America.
Enjoy.
We all know who will be doing the attack on the USA and it won’t be Russia or China.
I would have to do some very serious searching to find a comment stupider than this. “… gentler method of nuclear destruction … ” I mean, holy fuck.
The NYC PSA mace it clear a few years ago that even a very local nuclear blast is a no big deal. You duck into a bldg. Soon the all-clear sounds, and you are on your way. Worst case, you gotta shampoo your hair and throw away the clothing you were wearing.
“We were gonna wait until you were a bit older (and out of kinniegarden) but babe, if you didn’t ovulate that egg or deliver that sperm IT AIN”T YOUR CONCERN.”
“why?”
“Because,…. lemme explain….nothing in, nothing out.”
They showed this to my grandkids but it had nothing to do with a bomb.
The new title: “When Uncle Jim Exposes Himself”
LOL 😂😅🤣
Jews are horrible people who deserve to be hated. Suck it up.
My house and car both have EMP shields on them. But an EMP may fry computers and even cell phone?
When I was in the military I was trained how to survive a Chemical, Bacteriological, Radiological attack. For nuclear exposure the standard training is to shelter so that you don’t get exposed to radioactive dust. Simply digging a ditch and covering it with a poncho or tarpaulin was sufficient. Two days then you can uncover. Taking Potassium Iodide protects thyroid gland but doctors routinely destroy thyroid gland to put you on money making Levothyroxin substitute. So, pick your poison: a nuke attack or an endocrinologist?
Several of the effects of EMP mentioned in this article are incorrect. The results would be very bad, I agree with that but the specific effects are exaggerated or wrong. For instance, most jet planes are struck by lightning regularly and there is very little effect. Trains are mostly diesel electric. If the motors are affected they would simply stop, not “run into walls”. Most auto brakes are hydraulic not electric, power steering is also hydraulic. The auto would be more difficult to steer and stop when the engine shuts down but most people could still bring it to a controlled stop. I worked at nuclear power plants for over 30 years and I am now retired. My job included mitigating damage in case of emergency (it never happened). I worked at one that you have circled in blue. We had tanks with millions of gallons of water that would gravity feed into the reactor in an emergency. We also had tanks that had pressurized nitrogen on top of the water to push the water into the reactor when the pumps don’t have power. The valves on these systems are normally closed but fail open in an emergency. The emergency diesel generators and fuel tanks are protected by three foot thick rebar reinforced concrete walls. These walls would absorb most of the EMP blast, especially the rebar. There are more protective systems but I don’t want to go into all of it. The power grid would be destroyed with catastrophic results but nuclear plants should not be something to worry about. The dangers are real but scaremongering doesn’t benefit anyone.
Ukrainians.
Organized by Mosssad.
https://henrymakow.com/2025/06/june-16--fascists-frolic-with-.html
Not if you and your neighbors are armed and have a simple “what-if” game plan.
A Complete Loss of Flow Accident (CLOFA), where there is a complete loss of forced coolant through the reactor core, is classified by the American Nuclear Society as a condition III event. A CLOFA can result in damage to the fuel and ultimately the core, if forced coolant flow is not restored.
The conditions created by HEMP E1 – the loss of off-site power combined with the disabling of the emergency power systems and the active Emergency Core Cooling Systems (ECCS) – would create a condition that could be described as a CLOFA. Following the emergency shutdown and complete loss of all electrical power, neither the primary pumps, nor the secondary pumps in the ECCS could be used to remove heated water from the reactor core.
CLOFA in Boiling Water Reactors (31 operating Boiling Water Reactors in the US) has previously led to the meltdown of Boiling Water Reactors at Fukushima Daiichi in 2011. An earthquake caused the loss of off-site power, causing the nuclear reactors at Units 1, 2, and 3 to undergo emergency shutdowns; all three Units eventually lost all emergency power and subsequently lost the ability to move cooling water through their reactor cores. As a result, all three Units eventually had their reactor cores melt down.
The Emergency Diesel Generators (EDGs) and battery bank at Unit 1 were both destroyed by the tsunami; the reactor core of Unit 1 melted down in about 7 hours after the loss of all electric power. Units 2 and 3 also lost their EDGs to the tsunami but they did have battery bank power for a limited amount of time until the batteries were exhausted. Both Units 2 and 3 subsequently had their nuclear reactors melt down within about 3 days following the tsunami.
Note that Units 1, 2, and 3 at Fukushima Daiichi were able to successfully conduct emergency shutdowns following the earthquake, which had caused the loss of off-site electrical power to the plant. These Units used their EDGs to begin the cooldown process of the reactor, which lasted about 49 to 51 minutes before two massive tsunamis arrived and destroyed all the EDGs. During the cooldown period prior to the tsunami, the decay heat in their reactor cores decreased to about 2% of the pre-shutdown power level. Yet this reduction of decay heat in their reactor cores did not prevent the reactors from self-destructing once all electric power was lost.
If nuclear power plants have their Emergency Power System and/or their active Emergency Core Cooling Systems disabled by the massive voltages and currents induced by HEMP E1, they will not be able use active Emergency Core Cooling Systems (ECCS) to reduce the decay heat in the reactor core (they will be unable to engage in the cooldown process). In other words, plant operators will have at least 3 times more heat in the reactor cores to deal with than did the plant operators at Fukushima when they lost all electric power. U.S. Boiling Water Reactors, therefore, are likely to be highly susceptible to destruction from HEMP E1 if they remain unshielded from EMP.
There are 63 Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs) operating in the US). The *passive* PWR ECCS system — the Cold Leg Accumulator system (designed to dump water into the reactor core) – may not be automatically triggered in the event of a CLOFA caused by HEMP E1, because the Accumulators are designed to activate following a significant drop in pressure in the primary coolant system (following a Loss of Coolant Accident; the loss of coolant causes the pressure to drop). Just the opposite would happen with a CLOFA triggered by EMP E1 – pressures would increase as the heat in the core skyrocketed.
A failure of the Cold Leg Accumulators in PWRs to react to a CLOFA would mean that none of the ECCS in a PWR would come into play to restore forced flow of coolant through the reactor core.
This is an excerpt from pp. 103-104 of my book Nuclear High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse: A Mortal Threat to the U.S. Power Grid and U.S. Nuclear Power Plants
To clarify my previous post, I should have stated that immediately after a nuclear reactor emergency shutdown, the reactor core retains approximately 6.5% to 7% of its total operating heat due to decay heat from the highly radioactive fission products in the fuel rods. During the 49-51 minute cooldown period prior to the tsunami, the decay heat in the Fukushima reactor cores decreased from 7% to about 2% when the tsunami hit. This amounted to an approximately two-thirds reduction in the decay heat in the core following the emergency shutdown,
That still is a lot of remaining heat; Unit 1 at Fukushima was a 460 megawatt (MW, or million watt) reactor that produced 1380 MW of heat when operating at full power, 7% of 1380 MW = 97 MW; Units 2 and 3 were 784 MW that produced 2352 MW of heat; 7% of 2352 MW = 165 MW heat remaining in the reactor core after emergency shutdown.
The 49-51 minute cooldown period after the emergency shutdowns reduced the decay heat in the cores from 7% to 2%. 2% of 1380 MW = 27 MW; 2% of 2352 MW = 47 MW of heat remaining in the reactor cores following 51 minutes of cooldown.
A 1000 MW US commercial reactor would have about 210 MW of decay heat remaining in the core following emergency shutdown and would be unable to initiate a normal cooldown with no on-site or off-site power available, and many solid-state components in the active ECCS disabled from EMP E1.
Planes fall out of sky
Pacemakers fail
car crashes
no more insulin or meds/hospitals
stores
farm machinery
food production
government collapse
hundreds of thousands dead
chaos
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Second_After
Yes, I’ve never heard your assertion refuted or explained away. Makes sense to me.
“Then guys with guns kill you and enjoy the fruit of your foresight.”
I currently live in area where people are well-armed. It would at least be a fair fight. There are however a lot of unassimilated Hispanics living in the western half of flyover country. If you add a majority Hispanic police force, then you’d be right that they’d take your nice little homestead from you. There is the distinct possibility the Latinos would repatriate their former homelands after enough disruption but maybe pillaging and plundering along the way.
Most but not all. Wiseway and Edison Eco don’t. Wood stoves don’t use electricity and are cheaper. I also found a small stove that uses canned heat and can be used for cooking or heating 200 sq ft but I’m not telling you the name of it. So there! Besides you probably live in a large urban area where you’ll likely be killed during or shortly after a nuclear attack. Why worry?
Those who choose to believe that nuclear weapons don’t exist might take a tour of nuclear tests sites and go visit the US Nevada Test site, the Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan, Lop Nur in China, and Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic Ocean, and then drop by Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Talk to the peoples who live near these sites.
After that, if you still believe that nuclear weapons don’t exist, I will pay for a free membership for you in the Flat Earth Society,
American and british terrorists getting legally nuked out of existence is one of only options to finally wipe out this scum forever.
Legal sanctions and boycotts, as well as legally rounding up this sick scum around the world are more realistic ways. Safe and legal containment concentration camps for american and british terrorists, from which they will not escape and will not affect the human specie.
This is an existencial war between american and british terrorists and war criminals against God and the free world.
A hostile wouldn’t need to use SLBMs. There are probably already satellites in orbit with the requisite nuclear weapons.
BTW, move that centre circle a bit north, and you can better black out the unhardened communities surrounding a number of military installations supporting missiles, bombers, and recce from Texas to North Dakota.
What does visiting some nuclear test site prove…have you actually seen a nuclear weapon explosion…what you don’t see with your eyes don’t witness with your mouth!
Thanks for the article and also your friendly reply to me. My apologies if my reply was rude, that wasn’t the intention.
According to the mission statement, this website publishes controversial articles and we have certainly had some in the past that were probably not worth spending time reading and digging into for busy people, often this is rather obvious, but here we are looking at very complex subject from the standpoint of physics (nukes, gamma rays knocking electrons resulting in huge EMP’s) and also technological matters like behavior of power grids, certainly dictated by physics, but also the tech details like what has been done to protect them from say lighting strikes? It’s hardly unreasonable to ask for qualifications or credentials when someone publishes article with rather bold claims about such matters involving something close to a mass extinction event in the U.S. resulting from what seems to be rather limited nuclear attack?
Here is my problem: I have background in engineering and electronics. But here it only goes so far in trying to figure out the merit in your arguments. First and foremost, information and data about nuclear tests comes from state actors (the U.S. government apparatus or affiliated sources). Obvious question is – can I trust them? It’s not as if I can do such tests myself, or rely on independent sources with empirical data because there are none. Only states use nukes.
And honestly the physics involved and the tech is above my understanding. The same applies to probably 99.x% of your readers. Most of whom don’t have the faintest idea about these issues.
It seems to me discussing this article is rather pointless, here we have to rely on sources unless we can display very serious credentials in physics or in electrical engineering.
For the moment, the best idea I can come up with is checking out the latest and greatest of A.I research. Our host Mr Unz. has stated he is very impressed with the deep research capabilities of the Open A.I. I have been using the ‘general’ version of that thing in recent months and been quite impressed.
Here is the summary of the deep search Open A.I. (ChatGTP) This run took 5 minutes and used 25 sources.
Here is a link to the full report.
https://chatgpt.com/s/dr_68506a4d7a408191bfe716a715c9ae13
What to believe? I haven’t forgotten the ‘2000’ scenario when limitations in Microsoft Windows were supposed to wreck havoc. At the time I had to spend considerable effort and time explaining to people their toasters and garage air compressors were not about to explode. Sorry, probably unfair but i couldn’t resist. All in all I tend to agree with our host, the report from ‘deep seek’ Open A.I is impressive and seems more credible than your article.
There is a classic SNL skit about nuclear reactors starring Ed Asner. he is retiring as head of the reactor and he says here is my final crucial final advice: “You can’t put too much water on a reactor core that is overheating.” Of course in the next scene he is on a beach unreachable, and his former colleagues are frantically debating which way to interpret his statement!
“It’s totally fine to murder 150,000,000 white people so that the browns inherit the Earth simply because some jews are hiding among them!” ~ the clinically insane
No wonder you’re hiding behind anonymity.
South Park had that covered …
☯️
Can you explain why radiation wasn’t a problem in Japan?
I’ve never heard that explained.
Maybe there’s a secret type of nuclear explosion that does not leave radioactive isotopes.
Who knows?
I, for one, would prefer the golden shot of pure heroin in my veins.
Sorry, I am not impressed with an AI report. You seem as interested in doing research as some of the freshmen in the nuclear weapons class that I teach at the University of Missouri.
Please refer to the footnotes in my article; if you have issues with the research or technical information presented by the references there, I am willing to talk specifics. You might get a copy of my book, which includes much more detail and utilized 160 references.
The reports created by the Metatech Corporation, which I relied heavily upon, are close to the gold standard for EMP research. Dr. William Radasky, who directs Metatech, has written hundreds of papers on EMP and helped the DOD develop guidelines for EMP.
I have already addressed the EPRI report in an earlier reply. (The EPRI report was produced with bias and has been refuted in detail by officers of the US Air Force who formed the Electromagnetic Defense Task Force.) The Congressional EMP Commissions have confirmed the catastrophic potential of EMP.
That’s because you’re not interested in the truth. Only in preposterous conspiracy theories.
Real scientists don’t waste their time with this kind of drivel.
Denying nukes is essentially the same as believing the earth is flat and 6000 years old.
Only moronic dipshits waste their time with this sort of ludicrous nonsense.
With cars useless how will people get around? Bikes . Wally sells perfectly good 26 inch bikes for $98.
So then are Russia, China, India, Pakistan, the UK, France, and North Korea all in on the conspiracy? Do they coordinate PR? How does that work?
I would have included Israel, but Jews and hoaxes would not exactly support my argument.
The below totally captured the amazing suicidal talent of the failed bipedal fuckups called Humanity…………
The only thing that topped it was the 1990’s Outer Limits series where evil aliens defeated mankind nearly every episode………and only because of the human race’s sheer idiocy and ability to be easily conned by their own arrogance.
American “whites” are doing far more than letting the Jews hide among them.
Most of them. The Jews control the wizard behind the curtain of every country. It’s quite foolish to assume that what obviously happens in the US and UK doesn’t also apply to everyone else marching to the same drum.
North Korea just a fringe client state of China. They’re not in on it in the traditional sense, but their existence justifies the continued presence of American occupation forces in Japan and South Korea.
With all of that said, I thought the comment you replied to was about Jewish control over these countries. However, since it was about the moon landing and nukes, I guess you can just write this off. Nukes definitely exist: they’re the Jews’ final solution to the goy problem.
‘The Birth Of The People’s Republic Of Antarctica’ by John Calvin Batchelor
Nuclear bombs do not exist, its a hoax. 2nd biggest jewish hoax, after holohoax. Just travel to Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Firebombs mixed with chemical weapons. All materials emit radiation, and plutonium is harmlesss.
1. Holohoax: Created to justify the creation of israel.
2. Nuclear hoax: To create the illusion of “all-powerful” weapon and the “samson option”.
And you don’t even mention the original downwinders in the Tularosa Basin!
No idea how anyone thinks nuclear weapons are bogus!
The failure to use it isn’t for want of trying by a certain element in Israel: Jonathan Pollard: The EMP Weapon and Defeating Iran.
This has got to be one of the best articles and reader response commentaries I’ve ever seen at Unz -or anywhere else for that matter. Kudos to Mr Starr! I can only add that satellites with unaffected orbits may suffer some circuitry damage or get completely fried from EMP? I’m not sure that current ionizing radiation protections built into satellites today, are sufficiently adequate to block damage from a surge of local and high energy neutrons released by atomic detonations in near space. The only shield I know of would be material with heavy concentrations of hydrogen atoms such as polypropylene. I just can’t imagine any satellite being stuffed with it, the sheer bulk required would be a daunting if not impossible task. I suppose some screening from such neutrons could be accomplished by deflecting them with a lithium based film but truly doubt that such protections are even considered during the manufacturing process?
Those Tesla battery charging stations will turn into tomb stones. Well off-gridders? Well Elon? that remote hideout idea you’ve been touting, the high-brow techies who follow you …where will you guys run to now? Mars? amused… visit – https://offgridworld.com/tesla-motors-announces-new-home-battery-that-could-take-your-home-off-grid/
Further, a bit of history that fits in well with this article, a gigantic solar storm incident that occurred over a century ago, I reference https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event and also initial discoveries by physicists that help us understand EMP Again, visit a detailed discussion of the Compton Effect @ https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compton_scattering
After reading your comment yesterday I read One Second After last night. Its worth reading for sure. Its a scary realistic story about how precarious our complicated just in time world has become.
Thanks for the recommending it.
=go visit the US Nevada Test site=
This place Nevada Test Site (Yucca Flats) nowadays is behind the electified barbed wire. Nonetheless A LOT of funny stuff could be seen thru high power binos. JC Penney mannequins are my favorites. Also Ford Fairlanes – the kind of car James Bond drove in Cuba.
Mannequins after Nuclear test, Yucca Flats, Nevada, May, 1955
https://monroegallery.com/gallery/default/photoDetail/mannequins-after-nuclear-test-yucca-flats-nevada-may-1955
ATOMIC BOMB TEST IN NEVADA w/ JC PENNEY MANNEQUINS 34512
Thank you for posting this. I had intended for the photo to appear at the beginning of the article in conjunction with the caption that does still appear there.
I think perhaps Figure 2 was posted instead because it was considered to be better as a lead image (?). Regardless, I am very grateful to Ron Unz for posting the article.
I need to correct myself here. I meant to say beryllium not lithium-slipping up a bit more these daays!
Galen Winsor
https://www.newspapers.com/article/tri-city-herald-winsor-tours-for-birch-s/146039503/
https://tech.yahoo.com/general/articles/fact-check-video-allegedly-showing-130000997.html
You are welcome. Nothing much new to me (except the classifications in the IEC standard, the mass of those transformers, and a couple of aspects of the secondary damage), but a very good and readable article and it would certainly be very informative to many.
Some commentor on another thread didn’t believe the information you were presenting, so asked another commentor to run it through an LLM as a ‘fact checker’.
For several good reasons I don’t agree with such things and generally ignore them, but the latter responded to the request and placed a link to the result (as a PDF file) on the thread.
Should be easy to find through a site search, the request included your surname, IIRC. You may find it amusing to read or ignore it (I did the latter, knowing that you had just stated the reality if such an event were to occur).
Shielding in all things is basically the equation of radiation (say RF radio transmission) strength versus the shields value as an antenna. In terms of dB works fine. If your signal strength exceeds the antenna value, then the remainder leaks through.
There is no magic blanket, it’s just a question of math: measurement of signal interruption and distance from emission.
A very effective shield (antenna) can be constructed on the ground with interconnected cage (ie. not chicken wire) that is grounded to the earth. Satellites of course don’t get that luxury.
There is a luddite alternative, vacuum tube electronics is not vulnerable like transistors are. But who wants to go backwards! HAM radio operators maybe.
2nd generation fighter planes had this ability, even some MiGs out to 4th gen (first 1970s run of Fulcrums) and for our side, the original Hawker Harrier – not the USMC version.
We just got our new monthly allotment of Deep Research runs and since there had been some disputes, I decided to fact-check this one.
According to the Deep Research AI, it was almost totally accurate in every particular:
https://www.unz.com/factcheck/factcheck-an-emp-attack-on-the-u-s-power-grids-and-critical-national-infrastructure/
You forgot tpo mention to the Russians that this is a two way street.
Though it is possible that Russia and China are protecting themselves by reverting to older noneffected electronics sytems.
The US should always be preparing for the possibility of nuclear or bioweapons attack.
Hey no knocking HAM Radio . . . .
Laugh
——————-
Farraday Cages
The average American uses twice the energy of the average Chinese and Russian.
They are going to feel double the pain.
Bring it on.
How crude was the propaganda back then? Even so… that’s some first rate video footage. I thought there would be more shrunken heads and hip bone ashtrays, perhaps a human skin lampshade.
Watch one cat saying that he was located 2 miles from the epicenter (the spot on the ground above which the nuke explodes) and suffered no damage. Despite some hysterical comments totally credible.
I still remember the formula from NBC training during Basic at Benning School for Boys. Radius of destruction is directly proportional to the cube root of a yield. Because energy dissipates in 3D. In other words: 1KT -> 1MT then 0.3 miles -> 3 miles.
Nowadays the most popular warhead is 300KT.
W88 warhead
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/W88
No, no, no. My suggested scenario does not address high energy wave forms. In particular, is limited to the impact of fast neutron activation inside satellite circuitry e.g., the motherboards and associated related electronics. An ionization effect occurs after neutron transmutation of common elements such as rare earths-into isotopes. The resultant isotopic alterations in circuitry change transistor functions, battery, gateways and diodes…and who knows what else.
When the nukes were dropped on Japan, everything electronic was still fairly basic and solid state. No microchips, cars with computer brains, cell phones, smart homes, credit card chip readers, ect. An EMP over Nagasaki today would probably cause more death and destruction than the one dropped in WW2.
Thanks. Interesting to compare that to the AI result cited in this comment:
https://www.unz.com/article/an-emp-attack-on-the-u-s-power-grids-and-critical-national-infrastructure/#comment-7169333
Mr. Starr,
You are to be commended for your worthwhile effort on this most important subject.
Some of the tunnels at the Nevada Test Site had Line-of-Sight-Pipes more than 1,800 feet long; these had an opening at the Work Point end of around 6 inches in diameter and were 44 feet in diameter at the opposite end.
The LOS Pipe was sucked down to create as near perfect a functional partial-vacuum as could be created in order to replicate and conduct near-space experiments.
The primary effects of Nuclear Explosive Detonations are heat, blast and radiation. Through the use of the Fast Closure Device, the heat and blast from a Nuclear Explosive Detonation can be mitigated or eliminated, allowing only radiation – Neutrons – to pass beyond the Work Point.
On many occasions, MIRV-ed Nuclear Explosive-armed reentry vehicles were hung from the ceiling of the LOS pipe at various distances from the Work Point.
In the conducting of the experiment, a Nuclear Explosive Device would be detonated at the Work Point end mimicking the detonation of a Nuclear Explosive Device being detonated near reentry vehicles in space. This would act also as a proxy for the EMP-effect.
So far as I can remember, experiments of this type were conducted as early as 1961. The EMP-effect was the subject of numerous Nuclear Explosive Device experiments and “EMP” was common jargon on the Test Site as one of many effects of Nuclear Explosive detonations.
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https://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/intro/uget.htm
I have asked on Reddit, and here’s a rather decent debunking of the article.
© dragmehomenow
https://old.reddit.com/r/nuclearweapons/comments/1liff2a/does_north_korean_have_mad_with_the_usa_by_virtue/mzcrz32/
I’m usually willing to discuss any criticisms, but this is troll material that includes a lot of bullshit.
And yes, I do consider Annie Jacobsen a good source. Like anyone else, she makes a few mistakes, but her book, Nuclear War: A Scenario, is a remarkable work that should be considered mandatory reading for anyone who is in a position to order a launch of nuclear weapons.