tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1592992209402300549.post7077726768059020301..comments2024-03-29T09:08:47.702-04:00Comments on The Silicon Graybeard: Surprising Place for an EMP ArticleSiGraybeardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280583031339062059noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1592992209402300549.post-41368441159000437372016-02-06T10:12:25.818-05:002016-02-06T10:12:25.818-05:00First of all any EMP attack on the U.S. is in fact...First of all any EMP attack on the U.S. is in fact a nuclear attack. What country would risk that? We would immediately respond with a full nuclear attack. The problem with EMP as a strategic attack is all or most of our military equipment is hardened and we would still be able to respond.<br /><br />Second it is commonly believed that one nuke EMP will wipe us out. Wrong! It would take at least 24 EMP devices at a specific altitude in a checkerboard pattern over the U.S. The only country capablle of doing this is Russia and even there that is doubtful. But even with the best EMP pattern it is likely that the destruction of electronic devices would be 75% TO 90% AT BEST AND MAYBE 50% AT WORST. Not a great strategic result.<br /><br />Third, all of the doommsday scenarios assume the grid will be destroyed and it will not be possible to restore it. This is simply wrong. A major EMP will take out the grid by 'burning out" the weak links. The fuses and breakers obviously and many of the connections such as where a high voltage line is tied to a transformer. There is a misguided belief that all transformers will be destroyed. Not true! What is likely is that at best the link connecting the transformer to the outside world will simply open up. The transformers are incredibly robust, most of the winding do not look like wire as we perceive it but are in fact copper straps, quite thick and wide and able to handle a lot of current flow. And all transformers literally sit inside a Faraday cage. Most likely every transformer will survive an EMP. Then there are the transmission lines, a current would be induced possible so strong as to cause a failure and any weak link on the transmission line will 'open' as soon as that happens current flow stops and the damage ends. So all or most transmission lines will still be in place and simply need a repair where ever they may have opened up.<br /><br />The other myth is that we don't have enough spare transformers and that we have lots of these hybrid transformers at power plants that were made in China that couldn't be replaced. 95% of large transfomers at power generation facilities are the old design. In fact if you go to any of the old dams power houses you will see these large transformers and they are the same ones installed when the facility was built. These thiings last five lifetimes and very few of our transformers are the new design. As for spares, drive by your local utilities storage yard. They will have a stack of them. AND they can be rebuilt on site. Now, generally they are not rebuilt that way but they can be. I have seen a team of workers open up a transformer and repair it when they didn't have a spare of that type. <br /><br />I think most of the EMP hype is... hype. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1592992209402300549.post-16572514867913452512016-02-06T07:22:30.637-05:002016-02-06T07:22:30.637-05:00Probably one of the biggest mistakes made repeated...Probably one of the biggest mistakes made repeatedly throughout history.....assuming your adversary thinks the same way you do.<br /><br />Kim Jong Un is batshit crazy.....crazy like a fox maybe but still<br />a certifiable nut job. <br /><br />And assuming that Islamic fanatics won't use nukes if given the chance because we will glass them is a stupid fallacy. These are the type of people that strap bombs to 8 year old kids and use them as forced suicide weapons. Thinking they can be deterred by the threat of death is stupid. Some of them WANT WWIII.....they think it will usher in the ascendancy of islam over everything.Dannoreply@blogger.com