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The Planetary Bill of Rights Project
The Planetary Bill of Rights Project
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We predict the following people would love this project if they read the book: Libertarians, Objectivists, classic
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Melissa@PlanetaryBillOfRights.org
We predict the following people would love this project if they read the book: Libertarians, Objectivists, classic
conservatives, classic liberals, Glenn Beck, Judge Andrew Napolitano, Ron Paul, Thomas Jefferson, Ayn Rand, Yaron Brook...
Is The United States In Danger From An EMP Attack?
From the Intelligence Processing Network ( IPN ) of the Planetary Bill of Rights Project
January 29th, 2012
We asked Dr. Howard Hayden, Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of Connecticut, and author of The Energy Advocate, at http://www.energyadvocate.com
Hi Dr. Hayden,
It's been awhile since I've heard from you, hope you're well.
Could I ask you about something, please?
Something doesn't make sense to me, in light of what I've heard in the past.
It's becoming "common wisdom" now, that the U.S. could suffer an EMP attack that could put us back to the stone age within a few seconds, and kill two thirds of the U.S. population within a year. They're saying that even Iran could launch such an attack against us, and all it would take is an EMP over our east coast, west coast and a central U.S. city, to accomplish this, or a high altitude blast over the central U.S.
Supposedly our military experts believe this, and William R. Forstchen wrote a book called "One Second After" that's alleged to be based on military intel and what could really happen.
But this doesn't match up with what I'd heard from people in the nuclear industry in the past.
I was told that for this to happen, we'd have to suffer a massive high altitude nuclear attack over all our major cities with large warheads, and that the blasts themselves would be far worse than what any EMP would do anyway. In essence it would be nuclear war. They also said that EMP fields collapse as the square root ( is it? ) of distance, so if the blast were above the cities, say in space, it wouldn't cause that kind of "frying" of everything electronic?
The panic theory though, seems to be being put forth by people who might benefit from us paying tens of billions to "harden our grid" against such an attack ( Why hasn't it been done already? I know the military did this years ago. ), or they have interests in selling survivalist foods and gear.
But if the panic theory is false, then we have far more to worry about from a concerted global economic attack on the United States, which appears to be happening since 2007.
So what's the truth about this, Doctor Hayden? Has new technology been developed which could actually do this to us, say by a nation like Iran, without a full blown nuclear attack with large warheads being launched against us, or is this nonsense that's being put forth by fear peddlers?
And may I quote your reply on the Planetary Bill of Rights Project blog?
He replied:
Here is my timely response, excerpted from The Energy Advocate, January 2012:
EMP
I have recently encountered a lot of communication about EMP, an electro-magnetic pulse presumably caused by a high-altitude nuclear blast that could (in some accounts) cause the entire US electrical grid to fail, computers to be destroyed, and so forth. After all, in 1962 some power failure did occur in Hawaii during a high-altitude test.
From the Intelligence Processing Network ( IPN ) of the Planetary Bill of Rights Project
January 29th, 2012
We asked Dr. Howard Hayden, Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of Connecticut, and author of The Energy Advocate, at http://www.energyadvocate.com
Hi Dr. Hayden,
It's been awhile since I've heard from you, hope you're well.
Could I ask you about something, please?
Something doesn't make sense to me, in light of what I've heard in the past.
It's becoming "common wisdom" now, that the U.S. could suffer an EMP attack that could put us back to the stone age within a few seconds, and kill two thirds of the U.S. population within a year. They're saying that even Iran could launch such an attack against us, and all it would take is an EMP over our east coast, west coast and a central U.S. city, to accomplish this, or a high altitude blast over the central U.S.
Supposedly our military experts believe this, and William R. Forstchen wrote a book called "One Second After" that's alleged to be based on military intel and what could really happen.
But this doesn't match up with what I'd heard from people in the nuclear industry in the past.
I was told that for this to happen, we'd have to suffer a massive high altitude nuclear attack over all our major cities with large warheads, and that the blasts themselves would be far worse than what any EMP would do anyway. In essence it would be nuclear war. They also said that EMP fields collapse as the square root ( is it? ) of distance, so if the blast were above the cities, say in space, it wouldn't cause that kind of "frying" of everything electronic?
The panic theory though, seems to be being put forth by people who might benefit from us paying tens of billions to "harden our grid" against such an attack ( Why hasn't it been done already? I know the military did this years ago. ), or they have interests in selling survivalist foods and gear.
But if the panic theory is false, then we have far more to worry about from a concerted global economic attack on the United States, which appears to be happening since 2007.
So what's the truth about this, Doctor Hayden? Has new technology been developed which could actually do this to us, say by a nation like Iran, without a full blown nuclear attack with large warheads being launched against us, or is this nonsense that's being put forth by fear peddlers?
And may I quote your reply on the Planetary Bill of Rights Project blog?
He replied:
Here is my timely response, excerpted from The Energy Advocate, January 2012:
EMP
I have recently encountered a lot of communication about EMP, an electro-magnetic pulse presumably caused by a high-altitude nuclear blast that could (in some accounts) cause the entire US electrical grid to fail, computers to be destroyed, and so forth. After all, in 1962 some power failure did occur in Hawaii during a high-altitude test.
That’s the scary version. Let’s look further, beginning with simple physics. If there is an electrical current
in a wire, there is a magnetic field around the wire. It is common to demonstrate the fact with a compass
needle that always orients itself tangent to a circle around the wire. The figure shows the direction of the
magnetic field, hence of the compass.
If the direction of the current is reversed, the direction of the compass needle also reverses. If two wires placed next to each other, side-by-side, carry equal currents in opposite directions, no magnetic field results.
A steady magnetic field doesn’t do anything of interest. However a changing magnetic field can cause a current in a remote loop of wire. The faster the field changes, the greater the current.
Nuclear bombs are prolific sources of gamma rays, and gammas can collide with electrons, propelling them to high speed (comprising a sudden current) in an instant; therein lies the worry about EMP. A sudden pulse of gammas produces a sudden current, which produces a sudden change in magnetic field, which can affect remote loops of wire (read: power lines).
But generally speaking, the gammas are isotropic—going all directions. Although the bomb blast generates sudden currents, they go in all directions, so that there is no net magnetic field. So we come to the first important conclusion: it must take a very special bomb design to create an EMP.
If the direction of the current is reversed, the direction of the compass needle also reverses. If two wires placed next to each other, side-by-side, carry equal currents in opposite directions, no magnetic field results.
A steady magnetic field doesn’t do anything of interest. However a changing magnetic field can cause a current in a remote loop of wire. The faster the field changes, the greater the current.
Nuclear bombs are prolific sources of gamma rays, and gammas can collide with electrons, propelling them to high speed (comprising a sudden current) in an instant; therein lies the worry about EMP. A sudden pulse of gammas produces a sudden current, which produces a sudden change in magnetic field, which can affect remote loops of wire (read: power lines).
But generally speaking, the gammas are isotropic—going all directions. Although the bomb blast generates sudden currents, they go in all directions, so that there is no net magnetic field. So we come to the first important conclusion: it must take a very special bomb design to create an EMP.
Now imagine a square figure-8 pattern of wires. Suppose there is a rapidly changing magnetic field in both
loops, causing clockwise currents in both loops, as shown. In the common central wire there are two currents,
one going north and one south, causing cancellation; there is zero current in that wire.
Transmission lines are not quite like that, of course, but it is clear that the largest current would be in the outermost wire of the grid.
All transmission and distribution lines are protected by fuses. When a fuse blows, the current ceases unless there is enough voltage to cause an arc between the electrodes. Of course, a 500,000-volt transmission line is protected by fuses that don’t arc at that voltage. Furthermore, the strength of the magnetic field (hence of the magnetic pulse) diminishes with distance. An EMP that could hypothetically destroy the grid in New York would scarcely be felt in California.
Alan Lloyd, P.E., was a sales engineer working for a Westinghouse subsidiary, selling to Hawaiian utilities in 1962. He was witness to the flash of the Starfish burst on July 8, 1962 at about 11 pm, which was located 1,445 km (line of sight) from Honolulu. He was also aware of what happened to the grid as a result: almost nothing. Several streetlight strings on cul-de-sacs did fail. The damage occurred to fuses, not to the lights.
Mr. Lloyd was kind enough to look through his papers to find a summary of the event written by an investigator from Sandia Labs named Charles Vittitoe. At the time, street lights were strung in series, rather like Christmas tree lights, and driven by a high-voltage constant-current transformer. The cul-de-sac lights were lower in elevation, so they used lower voltage, transformed down from the main constant-current system. A single fuse in each of about 2/3 of the cul-de-sacs blew, resulting in about 300 street lights going out. (Tech folks: The fuses were about the size of a quarter, and were across the secondary terminals of the cul-de-sac transformers to guarantee constant current in event of a lamp failure.)
All street-lighting systems in Hawaii now use 110/220-volt power instead of the constant-current, high-voltage system used in 1962.
The EMP problem has now been known for five decades, and everybody in the electricity business knows about it, and has designed systems to be basically immune to the threat. But just in case you are worried about your sensitive electronics, let me add a note. Transistors are most easily damaged by a reverse voltage, even one that can provide hardly any current. All electronic systems rely on a DC power supply, typically 12 volts or 5 volts, but smaller voltages for modern computer chips.
Accordingly, a simple diode (shown below in green) can be used to shunt any negative pulses appearing on the anode of the power supply. I successfully used a 6-Amp, 400-V Schottky diode to protect a low-voltage (2.5-volt, 200-A) circuit against sparks from a 25-kV supply. The idea can easily be extended to power supplies in computers.
Transmission lines are not quite like that, of course, but it is clear that the largest current would be in the outermost wire of the grid.
All transmission and distribution lines are protected by fuses. When a fuse blows, the current ceases unless there is enough voltage to cause an arc between the electrodes. Of course, a 500,000-volt transmission line is protected by fuses that don’t arc at that voltage. Furthermore, the strength of the magnetic field (hence of the magnetic pulse) diminishes with distance. An EMP that could hypothetically destroy the grid in New York would scarcely be felt in California.
Alan Lloyd, P.E., was a sales engineer working for a Westinghouse subsidiary, selling to Hawaiian utilities in 1962. He was witness to the flash of the Starfish burst on July 8, 1962 at about 11 pm, which was located 1,445 km (line of sight) from Honolulu. He was also aware of what happened to the grid as a result: almost nothing. Several streetlight strings on cul-de-sacs did fail. The damage occurred to fuses, not to the lights.
Mr. Lloyd was kind enough to look through his papers to find a summary of the event written by an investigator from Sandia Labs named Charles Vittitoe. At the time, street lights were strung in series, rather like Christmas tree lights, and driven by a high-voltage constant-current transformer. The cul-de-sac lights were lower in elevation, so they used lower voltage, transformed down from the main constant-current system. A single fuse in each of about 2/3 of the cul-de-sacs blew, resulting in about 300 street lights going out. (Tech folks: The fuses were about the size of a quarter, and were across the secondary terminals of the cul-de-sac transformers to guarantee constant current in event of a lamp failure.)
All street-lighting systems in Hawaii now use 110/220-volt power instead of the constant-current, high-voltage system used in 1962.
The EMP problem has now been known for five decades, and everybody in the electricity business knows about it, and has designed systems to be basically immune to the threat. But just in case you are worried about your sensitive electronics, let me add a note. Transistors are most easily damaged by a reverse voltage, even one that can provide hardly any current. All electronic systems rely on a DC power supply, typically 12 volts or 5 volts, but smaller voltages for modern computer chips.
Accordingly, a simple diode (shown below in green) can be used to shunt any negative pulses appearing on the anode of the power supply. I successfully used a 6-Amp, 400-V Schottky diode to protect a low-voltage (2.5-volt, 200-A) circuit against sparks from a 25-kV supply. The idea can easily be extended to power supplies in computers.
Cheers,
Howard
____________
Howard Hayden
Perhaps you should subscribe to The Energy Advocate,
....................a monthly newsletter (on real paper) about energy.
Reply to ask for a sample or to have one sent to a friend
Read: Bass Ackwards: How Climate Alarmists Confuse Cause with Effect
A Primer on Renewable Energy
A Primer on CO2 and Climate
Get these and other books at Vales Lake Publishing, LLC
www.valeslake.com
www.energyadvocate.com
PO Box 7609
Pueblo West, CO 81007
corkhayden@comcast.net
FAX: (719) 547-7819
People will do anything to save the world ... except take a course in science
Michael Faraday, 1818: “Experiments do not always owe their value to the hypothesis which accompanies them.”
Howard
____________
Howard Hayden
Perhaps you should subscribe to The Energy Advocate,
....................a monthly newsletter (on real paper) about energy.
Reply to ask for a sample or to have one sent to a friend
Read: Bass Ackwards: How Climate Alarmists Confuse Cause with Effect
A Primer on Renewable Energy
A Primer on CO2 and Climate
Get these and other books at Vales Lake Publishing, LLC
www.valeslake.com
www.energyadvocate.com
PO Box 7609
Pueblo West, CO 81007
corkhayden@comcast.net
FAX: (719) 547-7819
People will do anything to save the world ... except take a course in science
Michael Faraday, 1818: “Experiments do not always owe their value to the hypothesis which accompanies them.”
"Question with Boldness"; Thomas Jefferson
"Hold to the Truth"; George Washington
"Speak Without Fear"; Martin Luther King
"Hold to the Truth"; George Washington
"Speak Without Fear"; Martin Luther King