| Submit your comments on this article |
| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Congress warned North Korean EMP attack would kill '90% of all Americans' |
| 2017-10-13 |
| Could we not just sever the entire power grid for a while, thereby avoiding major damage? Congress was warned Thursday that North Korea is capable of attacking the U.S. today with a nuclear EMP bomb that could indefinitely shut down the electric power grid and kill 90 percent of "all Americans" within a year. At a House hearing, experts said that North Korea could easily employ the "doomsday scenario" to turn parts of the U.S. to ashes. In calling on the Pentagon and President Trump to move quickly to protect the grid, the experts testified that an explosion of a high-altitude nuclear bomb delivered by a missile or satellite "could be to shut down the U.S. electric power grid for an indefinite period, leading to the death within a year of up to 90 percent of all Americans." Two members of the former congressional EMP commission said the threat to the U.S. has never been higher, in part because of the current high level of saber rattling by both sides and North Korea's surprising display over the past six months of its ability to deliver on its threats. "With the development of small nuclear arsenals and long-range missiles by new, radical U.S. adversaries, beginning with North Korea, the threat of a nuclear EMP attack against the U.S. becomes one of the few ways that such a country could inflict devastating damage to the United States. It is critical, therefore, that the U.S. national leadership address the EMP threat as a critical and existential issue, and give a high priority to assuring the leadership is engaged and the necessary steps are taken to protect the country from EMP," the experts told a House Homeland Security subcommittee. William R. Graham, chairman of the former EMP commission and its former chief of staff, Peter Vincent Pry, said that the U.S. has ignored the warning signs for years and that North Korea's military moves this year must be seen as a wake-up call. They said: •Just six months ago, most experts thought North Korea's nuclear arsenal was primitive, some academics claiming it had as few as 6 A-Bombs. Now the intelligence community reportedly estimates North Korea has 60 nuclear weapons. •Just six months ago, most experts thought North Korea's ICBMs were fake, or if real could not strike the U.S. mainland. Now the intelligence community reportedly estimates North Korea's ICBMs can strike Denver and Chicago, and perhaps the entire United States. •Just six months ago, most experts thought North Korea was many years away from an H-Bomb. Now it appears North Korea has H-Bombs comparable to sophisticated U.S. two-stage thermonuclear weapons. •Just six months ago, most experts claimed North Korean ICBMs could not miniaturize an A-Bomb or design a reentry vehicle for missile delivery. Now the intelligence community reportedly assesses North Korea has miniaturized nuclear weapons, and has developed reentry vehicles for missile delivery, including by ICBMs that can strike the U.S. •After massive intelligence failures grossly underestimating North Korea's long-range missile capabilities, number of nuclear weapons, warhead miniaturization, and proximity to an H-Bomb, the biggest North Korean threat to the U.S. remains unacknowledged‐nuclear EMP attack. Their testimony also highlighted the failure of the Pentagon or Congress to extend the life of the EMP Commission and they recommended deeper study into the threat, include from a simple solar flare. "Our current vulnerability invites attack," they said. |
| Posted by:gorb |
| #14 You set that one up pretty well, BP. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2017-10-13 14:44 |
| #13 A North Korean Nuclear EMP Attack? … Unlikely "Size Matters This is an instance where size does matter: the larger the nuclear explosion, the larger the affected area. While technical reports and papers on EMP from nuclear detonations are mostly classified, there is a paper by D. Hafemeister of California Polytechnic Institute that provides sufficient detail to derive a simple rule of thumb on the relationship between affected distance and nuclear device yield. The paper makes some simplifying assumptions: - The detonation is spherically symmetric (which may not always be the case); - The Earth’s magnetic field is not accounted for; - Prompt gamma rays account for 0.3 percent of the total energy of the explosion and are emitted within the first 10 nanoseconds of detonation; - About 0.6 percent of the prompt gamma rays produce relativistic electrons that constitute the E1 component of the EMP; and - The electric field damage threshold is 15,000 volts/meter or higher in the E1 component. Plugging in the numbers and presuming these assumptions are appropriate, the rule of thumb [My favorite kind of rule, as I only have to archive (2) rules at any given time.] is surprisingly simple: D = Y, where D is the maximum damage distance expressed in kilometers and Y is the yield of the blast in kilotons. So, a 20 KT bomb detonated at optimum height would have a maximum EMP damage distance of 20 km; a 1 MT (1,000 KT) bomb would damage out to 1,000 km. The largest North Korean test to date has been estimated to be about 20 KT." |
| Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy 2017-10-13 13:26 |
| #12 Another reason to move to Texas. Buncha Wind |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2017-10-13 13:01 |
| #11 It ain't so Skid! |
| Posted by: Shipman 2017-10-13 12:30 |
| #10 There are three grids in the Lower 48 states: the Eastern Interconnection, the Western Interconnection — and Texas. The Texas power grid is seperate from the rest of the US. They can sever connections to the other grids and function just fine. Another reason to move to Texas. |
| Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 2017-10-13 11:09 |
| #9 all those dead people's votes. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2017-10-13 10:39 |
| #8 Democrat vote to go up 90% How? If the lights are out, the Russian's social media ad buys and voting machine hacking will be ineffective... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2017-10-13 10:27 |
| #7 Democrat vote to go up 90% |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2017-10-13 09:04 |
| #6 The surviving 10% will quickly adopt paper ballots. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2017-10-13 08:49 |
| #5 S. M. Stirling to the white courtesy phone. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2017-10-13 08:47 |
| #4 P2k, agree except there is the caveat that we in the US have probably lost 80% of the skills necessary to survive without electricity. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2017-10-13 08:36 |
| #3 File this with the "World will end in 2020 due to Man Made Global Warming". Shhhhhh. Note 1. The Russians and Chinese already have the EMP capability. Note 2. Has 90 percent of the Puerto Rico population died off yet (the mayor of San Juan is not a valid data source). Note 3. Seems we survived a long time in history without electricity without a major die off. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2017-10-13 07:03 |
| #2 It would also wipe out 100% of North Koreans. |
| Posted by: newc 2017-10-13 02:42 |
| #1 Shipman, say it ain’t so! |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2017-10-13 01:46 |