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In the past In recent years, one wonders if North Korea or another country could blow up a nuclear weapon on the United States that would create an electromagnetic pulse and extinguish all electricity for weeks or months. This weekend badumption was championed by a former director of the CIA, a commission created by Congress and a book by journalist Ted Koppel. But a new sober engineering study by industry experts reveals that key network equipment can be protected from any type of PEM. Even if that could happen, the resulting failures would affect a few states, but would not turn the United States into a backdrop for The Walking Dead.
The study by the Electric Power Research Institute, a publicly funded research organization, reveals that existing technology can protect various components of the power grid to protect it from the effects of solar flares, lightning strikes, and lightning strikes. an EMP from a nuclear explosion. , All at the same time. A surge protector three for one. "We have a strong technical base for what impacts [of an EMP] maybe, "says Randy Horton, EPRI project leader and author of the report released today. "It's something that did not exist before."
Horton says that EPRI technicians worked with experts from the Energy Department's laboratories in Los Alamos and Sandia to simulate some effects of an EMP on substations and distribution systems . They also conducted concrete tests on electrical equipment at an EPRI laboratory in Charlotte, North Carolina. The study, which lasted three years, examines the effects of three types of energy generated by a nuclear detonation.
The first high energy wave occurs in nanoseconds and calls E1. The second wave, called E2, lasts up to one second and can fry the electrical systems as does a lightning strike, unless they are properly grounded. The effects of an E2 wave on the grid should be minimal. The third wave type can last for tens of seconds and is what utility operators might expect from a long-lasting, low-frequency solar flare or geomagnetic storm. The report says the combination of E1 and E3 would cause the most damage over the widest area.
Horton baderts that the simulations and tests performed by EPRI contradict previous conclusions that an EMP would wipe out the US network. "Regional voltage could collapse, but you're not going to damage a lot of bulk power transformers," says Horton. "That was the difference in our conclusion. Some studies have shown that hundreds of transformers could be damaged, but we did not find them. "
Over the last ten years, some members of an EMP commission have claimed that an attack would destroy the power grid and kill 90% of the US population with illness or famine. This sign was closed in 2017 after the Department of Homeland Security no longer asked Congress for funds to keep it running.
In addition to the electrical power sector, the Pentagon conducted its own clbadified tests on the potential effects of such an event on military installations. A group of experts is meeting this week at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala., Said Lt. Gen. Steven Kwast, who is coordinating the event.
Kwast says the threat is much more real than the public believes. "You do not need a nuclear explosion in the space to do it," he said. "You could have a hot air balloon climbing over a city with a tactical electromagnetic weapon. You can do one over an F-35 airfield or a post in the army so that none of the tanks will operate or over a shipyard so that none of the tanks ships do not vogue. Our enemy is intelligent and adaptive. They see that our soft belly is our electricity. "
But other nuclear weapons experts say the technical study by EPRI brings scientific rigor to a field dominated by hype and terror. "When you do a documented search for physical systems, it's a solid proof, no matter who paid for it," says Sharon Burke, Senior Advisor, New America Foundation and former Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Defense. 39, operational energy the Obama administration. "This is not the opinion of anyone."
Burke says congressional testimony and public efforts to scare the public at the threat of an EMP can divert money and resources from preparation to cyber attacks like the one that destroyed the network Ukrainian electric in 2015, disasters. "What if they manage to steer investments to the wrong places," says Burke. "There are real dangers for the network and the threat environment is changing rapidly."
Even with this new report, it is unlikely that the debate on MEPs will end any time soon. Last month, President Trump issued a decree asking federal agencies to plan and protect themselves against risks. Trump's order also calls on the US Secretary of Homeland Security to compile a list of all military and civilian badets in the United States that could be damaged by a 90-day MEP. This cabinet post has been empty since Kirstjen Nielsen resigned on April 7th.
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