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posted by chromas on Friday March 29 2019, @11:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the or,-you-know,-Carrington-events dept.

In what could potentially be one of the most, or least, significant actions of his term in office, President Trump Tuesday signed an Executive Order requiring federal agencies to strengthen critical infrastructure against ElectroMagnetic Pulse (EMP) attacks.

EMPs occur for a variety of natural and man-made reasons including, most notably, Nuclear Explosions and Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), either of which could potentially take out entire sections of the country's electrical grid and other infrastructure and capabilities, requiring require years or decades to recover from.

Members and supporters of the decommissioned US Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse have long warned of the possibility of an EMP attack, with some individuals, such as Peter Pry, who previously led the congressional EMP commission, asserting that an EMP attack on America could kill off 90% of the US population.

This is because a man-made EMP has the advantage of being highly asymmetrical. A small country able to pull one off would cause potentially massive disruption to a large tech dependent country such as the United States.

Past EMP related coverage here, here and here


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @05:31PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @05:31PM (#821907)

    Well, electronics is a pretty big hit. (Think the ECU in a car or tractor)

    But another worry is the big transformers that couple power in the electric grid.
    There are few spares and fewer factories to rebuild them.
    They are thought to be succeptable to EMP because they are hooked to large antennae (the grid)

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  • (Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Saturday March 30 2019, @04:25PM

    by fyngyrz (6567) on Saturday March 30 2019, @04:25PM (#822397) Journal

    There are few spares [power line transformers] and fewer factories to rebuild them.

    ...and those factories won't be running without power anyway.

    Another thing that is connected to the power lines is power generation systems. They might be hit quite hard. So having a transformer vs. not having one... might not even matter. Because spare utility-scale generators aren't common either.

    The grid would have to be taken apart so that small sections of it could operate, if you did have a working power plant. Can't be trying to drive current into shorted out transformers, etc.

    --
    I hate being bipolar... it's awesome!