Thread: Experts warn civilian world not ready for massive EMP-caused blackout

Experts warn civilian world not ready for massive EMP-caused blackout

By Josh Peterson
Published April 21, 2014 watchdog.org

FILE: August 14, 2012: A view of the U.S. power grid from inside of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas's command center in Taylor, Texas.REUTERS

The catastrophic effects of an electromagnetic pulse-caused blackout could be preventable, but experts warn the civilian world is still not ready.

Peter Vincent Pry, executive director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security and director of the U.S. Nuclear Strategy Forum, both congressional advisory boards, said the technology to avoid disaster from electromagnetic pulses exists, and upgrading the nation's electrical grid is financially viable.

"The problem is not the technology," Pry said. "We know how to protect against it. It's not the money, it doesn't cost that much. The problem is the politics. It always seems to be the politics that gets in the way."

He said the more officials plan, the lower the estimated cost gets.

"If you do a smart plan - the Congressional EMP Commission estimated that you could protect the whole country for about $2 billion," Pry told Watchdog.org. "That's what we give away in foreign aid to Pakistan every year."

In the first few minutes of an EMP, nearly half a million people would die.

That's the worst-case scenario that author William R. Forstchen estimated in 2011 would be the result of an EMP on the electric grid - whether by an act of God, or a nuclear missile detonating in Earth's upper atmosphere.

An electromagnetic pulse is a burst of electromagnetic energy strong enough to disable, and even destroy, nearby electronic devices.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014...cmp=latestnews

Electromagnetic pulse in fiction and popular culture


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Lightning has long been used as a dramatic device in popular fiction. In some tellings of the Frankensteinstory, the monster is animated by a lightning strike.

A non-nuclear EMP (NNEMP) device appeared as early as 1965, in the Thunderbirds TV puppet show.

By the early 1980s, a number of articles on nuclear electromagnetic pulse (NEMP) in the popular pressspread knowledge of the EMP phenomenon into the popular culture.^[1][2][3][4] EMP has been subsequently used in a wide variety of fiction and other aspects of popular culture.

Motion picture and electronic entertainment quite often depicts electromagnetic pulse effects incorrectly. This problem has become so bad that it was addressed in a report for Oak Ridge National Laboratoryby Metatech Corporation.^[5] (See the Nuclear electromagnetic pulse article for direct quotations from the Oak Ridge report.)

In addition, the United States Air Force Space Command commissioned science educator Bill Nye to make a video for the Air Force called "Hollywood vs. EMP" so that people who must deal with real EMP would not be confused by motion picture fiction.^[6] That U.S. Space Command video is not available to the general public.

Contents

• 1 Television
• 2 Motion Pictures
• 3 Books
• 4 Video games
• 5 See also
• 6 References
• 7 External links

Television[edit]

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2013)

In the 1965 episode "Terror in New York City", fourth in the first series of Thunderbirds TV shows, Scott Tracy flies Thunderbird 1 over a vehicle containing an illicit video tape of Thunderbird 2 and uses a non-nuclear EMP (NNEMP) device to wipe the tape.

In the 1983 made for television motion picture, The Day After, the fictional Soviet nuclear attack on civilian targets begins with a nuclear EMP attack in order to disable as much of the United States retaliatory capability as possible. This scenario accurately conforms to the Cold War nuclear attack scenarios as understood by military officials and nuclear weapons designers (although post Cold War scenarios are generally much different). Such a scenario is also presented in the programme Threads, again dealing with a fictional Soviet nuclear attack on Britain.^[7]

In the 1987 science fiction animated series Spiral Zone episode "Back to the Stone Age", Overlord and his Black Widows used an EMP device to disable the Zone Riders' advanced weapons. However, the Zone Riders are taught by Australian Aborigines how to fight using "primitive" weapons and soon defeat the Black Widows.

In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Sacrifice of Angels", the Dominion use an EM pulse againstBenjamin Sisko's fleet, disabling communication between the starships.

The setting of the Fox television series Dark Angel, produced by James Cameron and Charles H. Eglee, was in the United States after it has been devastated by a terrorist nuclear EMP attack on 1 June 2009. The setting of the Dark Angel series is in the period of 2019 to 2021, although the United States is still suffering from a deep economic depression caused by the EMP attack a decade earlier. Time periods in the television series are commonly referred to as either pre-pulse or post-pulse.

Another Fox show, 24, has had EMP weapons featured or mentioned in numerous episodes.

In episode number 6 of the 2006 CBS series, Jericho, a missile launched by unknown agents from within the United States causes a high-altitude nuclear electromagnetic pulse. The episode was titled 9:02 after the time at which all electric clocks stopped running.

The 2007 web series, Afterworld, the plot revolves around a regular EMP pulse that disables all AC electronics, although battery powered electronic devices still work.

In Series 9 Episode 1 of the BBC television spy drama Spooks, an EMP device hidden beneath theHouses of Parliament in London is used to disable two explosive-laden submersibles racing down theRiver Thames. In Series 6 Episode 1 a device described by character Adam Carter as an "EMP, HMP maybe" (25:26) is used to ambush a convoy transporting a prisoner.

In the re-imagined miniseries of Battlestar Galactica a non-nuclear EMP device is used to fake the destruction of the passenger-liner Colonial One by both disabling the incoming missiles and producing an illusion of a nuclear explosion. It is hinted that such devices are standard-issue for Colonial Fleet capital ships, which is unsurprising, given the robotic nature of their Cylon enemies. Unrealistically, everyone on board the liner is knocked out by the pulse.

Falling Skies is a DreamWorks Television series that premiered on Turner Network Television on 19 June 2011. The series was created by Robert Rodat and Steven Spielberg. In the science fiction series, alien invaders arrive and begin silently orbiting the Earth and hovering over major cities, refusing to respond to all attempts at communication. After the invading ships are in place, the aliens suddenly release a large electromagnetic pulse from their orbiting ships, which incapacitates all of the electrical and electronic technology of the advanced countries on the Earth, leaving the inhabitants of the Earth at the mercy of the invaders.

In the Stargate SG-1 universe, several instances of EMP were used in both the original series and the spinoff Stargate Atlantis. For example, in the original series episode Urgo, it is used in an attempt to neutralize an alien artificial intelligence. In another SG-1 episode, an EMP generator is used, unsuccessfully, in an attempt to destroy an ancient superweapon. In the episode "A Matter of Time" a directed beam EMP unit was used to close a connection between the SG-1 stargate and one on a planet being pulled into a black hole. In the Stargate Atlantis series, a nuclear EMP was used to destroy an artificial nano-machine virus infecting the city.

In the 2008 series Knight Rider the co-hero, a Ford Shelby GT500KR named KITT which is capable of driving itself, talking and firing all sorts of offensive and defensive weapons; has a small EMP device on board. The car is most often seen deploying this weapon to disable vehicles it and the shows hero, Michael Knight are pursuing. When the EMP is discharged, it is visualized by a distorted blue wave that expands outward from the hero car in a circle. The effect is a total electrical shutdown of the target vehicle, which is depicted by the car radio shutting off if in use, the gauge clusters all falling to zero, and the vehicle occupants cellphones also becomes inoperable. The target vehicle then (usually) coasts to a stop. In one episode, a continuity error shows up in the fact that after their vehicle has been EMP bombed by KITT, a two way walkie talkie held by one of the goons still appears to work. KITT is not affected in any way by his own EMP weapon.

Motion Pictures[edit]

• The 1985 film View to a Kill starts off with James Bond recovering a Soviet-made microchip, which is discovered to be a copy of an EMP-resistant design produced by Zorin Industries under US Government contract. Subsequent investigation reveals Max Zorin's connections to the KGB, and his plot to destroy American semiconductor production in Silicon Valley by triggering an earthquake.

• In 1995's GoldenEye, the main plot involves Russia developing a satellite called GoldenEye which is then stolen by the Janus crime syndicate and used against the satellite's original tracking station. Because of the EMP blast, 3 MiGs (which were called in to check a distress signal sent by one of the tracking station's workers) suffer severe damage to their electronic systems. One of them crashes into the station, severely damaging it, and igniting major fires inside. This also disabled British satellites surveillance of the tracking station.

• In the 1999 movie The Matrix, one of the surviving humans' few effective weapons against the machines are non-nuclear EMP generators mounted on their hovercraft. In the process, the hovercraft's electronics are also temporarily disabled, as is any advanced machinery around, making it a hazardous last-resort weapon. The EMP is shown disabling machine sentinels near the end of the movie. In the 2003 second sequel Matrix Revolutions, an EMP is discharged in the dock of the only remaining human city, Zion, disabling many machine sentinels, but also the entire defense system of the city.

• In Small Soldiers, it is revealed that the military chips in the Commandos are vulnerable to EMP. The humans exploit this weakness by overloading a powerline and unleashing an EMP to fry the Commandos.

• In Broken Arrow (1996), the EMP generated by the blast of a nuclear munition deep in an abandoned copper mine knocks out an USAF helicopter which was sent to detect the missing weapons. John Travolta's character in the film accurately predicted the EMP and stopped the jeep in which he was travelling.

• The plot of John Carpenter's 1996 film Escape from L.A. revolves around EMP.

• In the 2001 version of Ocean's Eleven, an explosively pumped flux compression generator (non-nuclear EMP device) in a van is used to shut down the electrical power to Las Vegas. It is not explained how such a small non-nuclear device can shut down the power to an entire large city. It is also not explained how the power could be predictably brought back on line in only 30 seconds after such a disastrous event which should have permanently destroyed all electronics in the area.

• In the 2003 film Battle Royale II: Requiem, a EMP was used to deactivate the collars on the students.

• In the 2005 film Superman Returns, the use of stolen Kryptonian technology by Lex Luthor causes massive EMP pulses of short duration that cause havoc with the test flight of a shuttle and also damage Metropolis later on in the film.

• In Cars 2, the EMP causes the cars with alternative fuel called "Allinol" to explode when affected by the pulse.

• In the film The Dark Knight Rises, Batman has a device similar to an EMP weapon. During the motorcycle chase, Batman uses it to disable one of the motorcycles Bane's henchman is riding.

• The 2012 remake of Red Dawn concerns a North Korean invasion of the United States, enabled by an EMP weapon which disables much of the defensive infrastructure of the US.

• In the 2013 film Pacific Rim, the kaiju Leatherback fires an EMP that disables the Jaeger Striker Eureka and the Hong Kong Shatterdome's electrical systems.

Books[edit]

Electromagnetic pulse is a very prominent concept in the novel Warday, published in 1984.^[8] Warday is about a limited, but nevertheless devastating, nuclear war that occurs on a single day in October 1988. Warday contains a fictional government report, several pages long, about the fictional Soviet nuclear EMP attack of 28 October 1988 against the United States. The fictional government EMP report is titled, "Summary of Effects Induced by Electromagnetic Pulse in the October 1988 Attack by the Soviet Union, and their Implications for Recovery."^[9] The war begins with six high-altitude nuclear EMP detonations over the United States, each with energy yields of 8 to 10 megatons. The six nuclear EMP weapons are detonated in two triangular patterns in order to cover both the eastern and western halves of the continental United States with fairly evenly spaced EMP detonations.
A terrorist use of EMP prior to the events of the Eclipse/A Song Called Youth Trilogy wiped out most of Wall Street's computer records, causing a major recession.
Superman stops high atmosphere detonation of a nuclear EMP device in The Dark Knight Returns, the 1986 comic book miniseries written by Frank Miller.
The 2006 Restoration Series novel Last Light by Terri Blackstock tells about an EMP, possibly generated from the depths of space, disables all electronic and electrical systems worldwide.
The 2009 novel One Second After by William R. Forstchen is about a nuclear EMP attack against the United States told from the perspective of a small community in North Carolina. The community is cut off from nearly all outside information by the EMP attack. Large numbers of people die from starvation, lack of medicines, and the lack of medical care. In addition, there are deadly fights for scarce resources such as food and water. Unlike most EMP fiction, One Second After was written specifically as a warning about the dangers of an EMP attack on modern society in hopes of causing readers to take action to prevent such a disaster.^[10] The EMP attacks in One Second After are launched from missiles in container ships. After the book was released, a Russian company started advertising missile launchers hidden inside shipping containers made for launching from such ships.^[11]
On 10 December 2010, the novel Lights Out by David Crawford was published in a paperback edition after being available on the Internet for many years.^[12] According to the description on the back cover of the book, it was downloaded more than three million times on the Internet before finally being published in print. Lights Out is a novel about ordinary people surviving after an unexpected EMP attack.
The 2011 book Preppers Road March by Ron Foster was the first installment of the "Prepper Trilogy", which was one of the first books to seriously address surviving after a solar storm resulting in a severe geomagnetic storm event. Ron Foster has gone on to undertake a series of novelettes that address what happened to some of the characters in his stories.
The novel High Intensity Death Wave by John Kuslich describes the mayhem that occurs when a deranged engineer builds an EMP weapon, which he uses to destroy flying commercial airliners.
Novels based on the video game Halo describe the use of nuclear EMPs to remove energy shielding on Covenant starships in extreme situations, as the EMP damages human vessels also. EMPs can also be produced by Covenant infantry overcharging plasma pistols.
In ADIRONDACK TREASURE - Isle Royale, scheduled for release in March 2014, Middle Eastern terrorists working with North Korea launch an EMP weapon from a Club-K container hidden on a freighter in the St. Lawrence River.

Video games[edit]

• In Crysis, the robotic alien enemies have the ability to emanate EMPs that disrupt the player's Nanosuit. In Crysis Warhead, a downed alien robot generates an EMP that shuts down the player's Nanosuit completely. The game also features "nano-disruptor" EMP grenades, purpose-built to be used against Nanosuit-equipped soldiers, though they are very effective against the alien robots as well, disabling them completely.

• In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, an EMP attack was seen in the campaign missions "Contingency" and "Second Sun". In "Contingency", Captain Price, aware of the Rangers' struggle against the Russians in Washington D.C., uses a submarine to release an ICBM into the higher atmosphere that disables all electronic devices in range, effectively destroying the Russian and American forces' vehicles and equipment there. However, the International Space Station is inconveniently unaware of the war on Earth and identifies the missile as an aircraft. As the missile is detonated, releasing an electromagnetic pulse, the shock wave from the nuclear explosion destroys the ISS. Players can obtain an EMP bomb in a multiplayer game (if unlocked and selected for their killstreak reward) after obtaining a 15 kill streak. This is also available in its sequel, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, in the Support Strike Package. When used, all enemy killstreak rewards are disabled, holographic sight, red dot sight, thermal scope and ACOG scope attachments lose their electronic features (such as their targeting reticle) and all aircraft in the airspace are disabled and fall from the sky (including AC-130sand UAVs).

• In Command & Conquer: Generals and the expansion pack Zero Hour, the Chinese 5-star General Power is an EMP bomb.

• In Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, both factions, Global Defense Initiative (GDI) and Brotherhood of Nod (Nod) use EMP buildings to temporarily disable mechanical units. In the expansion, "Command & Conquer: Firestorm", there is a mobile unit with similar capabilities. InCommand and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars Nod can mount EMP generators on their buggies and can somehow reactivate pulse-affected systems using "master comuputer countermeasures", whereasCommand and Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath features hand-thrown EMP grenades for GDI infantry.

• In Star Wars: Battlefront II, the player, while in the character of a clone jet trooper, may use a weapon called an "EMP launcher" that is ideal for neutralizing droid enemies.

• In Battlefield 2142, some weapons used by players utilize EMP that can be used to disable vehicles and equipment, as well as scramble infantry's helmet displays. The support class can use an EMP grenade that can temporarily disable vehicles whereas the engineer class has an EMP mine that works to a greater degree, and the commander can utilize an EMP strike, which is the most powerful EMP weaponry in the game. Anti-air guns have homing EMP missiles which can temporarily disable aircraft.

• In Enemy Territory: Quake Wars the GDF can use EMP grenades to disable vehicles and deployables for a short time. The Strogg have scrambler grenades, which work to a similar degree. Both grenades also slightly damage infantry.

• In Splinter Cell: Conviction the game follows Sam Fisher trying to stop a mass EMP detonation in Washington, DC.

• The Half-Life 2 mod Dystopia has an EMP grenade that disables enemy equipment and implants.

• In Deus Ex player can use EMP grenades for disabling security systems and robots.

• In Homefront's backstory, the Greater Korean Republic, a fictional superstate formed from the unification of North Korea and South Korea, launches a satellite that creates an EMP blast over theUnited States, crippling its entire electronic grid.

• In Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Need for Speed Rivals, the cops and the racers have an EMP system that fires a directed EMP blast at a targeted vehicle.

• In Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST, one can create an EMP by briefly charging a Covenant plasma pistol, or deploying a "power drainer". In Halo: Reach, the power drainer (like all deployables) is removed, but an EMP can also be created by using manual detonation on UNSC grenade launchers, or by using the full duration of the "armor lock" ability. An EMP disables the shields of a character, or their vehicle.

• In Just Cause 2, there is an EMP tower over an island. The effects of the EMP are thunder and lightning. It can also destroy the player's vehicle.

• InFamous begins with a large terrorist EMP attack on a major American city, plunging it in chaos. As the game has a super-hero theme, the player character is shown to have been standing at ground zero when the pulse went off, thus receiving radiations that made him develop electricity-based superpowers.

• In Fallout 3, the post apocalyptic world mentions multiple times how the great nuclear war of 2077 caused wide spread EMP damage to the world's electrical technology.

• In Battlefield: Bad Company 2, the story focuses on a Russian plot to weaken the United States for invasion by detonating an EMP weapon above the U.S.

• Outpost 2, an early Sierra game for PC, features EMP weaponry on the planet New Terra.

• In I.G.I.-2: Covert Strike, the main antagonist wants to use EMP weaponry on a space rocket to startWorld War III.

• In Team Fortress Classic, The Engineer has Electromagnetic pulse hand grenades as the unique thrown grenades specific to him. They detonate all the ammunition carried on enemy players in the blast radius.

• In StarCraft and StarCraft II, an EMP weapon was utilized by Terran Ghosts and science vessels to disable Protoss shields and deplete energy reserves of enemy units.
• In Banjo-Tooie, Mumbo Jumbo uses an EMP spell to disrupt a couple machines for the titular duo.

• In Planetside 2, players have access to an EMP grenade that disrupts players HUD and shields caught in the blast.

• In Battlefield 4, during a mission in Shanghai, upon exiting the city, an EMP blast occurs darkening the city and causing a nearby helicopter to crash. It is later remarked by some fellow Marines on board a US navy vessel that the blast also disabled some of the ships in the US naval fleet engaged around the area. Some are still able to function due to operating on diesel fuel and having no spark plug within the engines.

• In Dota 2, EMP is one of Invoker's spells. Its main function is burn away heroes' mana based on his Wex level, which is based on energy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electro...opular_culture