Guest post by Steven Goddard
The Effects of One Nuclear Bomb at High Altitude
From Wikipedia
Yesterday’s missile launch from nuclear power North Korea raised particular concern in the military, due to the possibility of EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) attack. Almost every piece of technology in our lives is dependent on semiconductors, which contain circuitry that is extremely vulnerable to electromagnetic pulses. From the Federation of American Scientists:
During the Cold War, the US military was very concerned about the fact that US planes used solid state circuitry and Soviet planes used vacuum tubes. It was known that nuclear war would likely cause American planes to drop out of the sky. Since then, we all have become completely reliant on semiconductor technology which controls our transportation, power, satellites, information technology and communication systems. Transistors have evolved over time to smaller and smaller geometries and lower voltages, which make them increasingly vulnerable to EMP.
The US and Russia conducted many nuclear detonations at high altitude prior to 1962, but the integrated circuit had not yet been invented. Some experts believe that an effective EMP attack would send the US and/or Europe instantly back to the dark ages. Civilian planes could lose control and fall from the sky, and cars made since 1980 might instantly and permanently lose steering, engine and brake control. Many phones, computers and Internet switches would become permanently disabled. Newt Gingrich spoke about the danger on Fox News this morning.
Gingrich replied: “There are three or four techniques that could have been used, from unconventional forces to standoff capabilities, to say: ‘We’re not going to tolerate a North Korean missile launch, period.’ … look at electromagnetic pulse, which changes every … equation about how risky these weapons are.”
More from Wikipedia
Ever wonder why (“Axis of Evil”) North Korea and Iran have been rushing to develop nuclear weapons and missile delivery capabilities? It has nothing to do with stopping global warming or making friends with Washington and Whitehall. Some references below. I recommend that everyone read them before they go to the voting booth next time. It is important to have leaders who can do more than talk, because we have bigger and tougher enemies than people who use incandescent light bulbs, and bankers who take holidays in Las Vegas.
ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE THREATS TO U.S. MILITARY AND CIVILIAN INFRASTRUCTURE
http://superconductors.org/emp-bomb.htm
http://www.unitedstatesaction.com/emp-terror.htm
http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/future-weapons-emp-bomb.html
http://www.electronics-related.com/usenet/design/show/98485-1.php
http://www.janes.com/articles/Janes-Strategic-Weapon-Systems/EMP-Bomb-Australia.html
http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/security/has197010.000/has197010_1.htm
http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/mctl98-2/p2sec06.pdf
http://www.fas.org/nuke/intro/nuke/emp/toc.htm
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/defense/1281421.html
Steven Goddard (10:03:20) :
I’m all for the freedom of speech but…..
Skeptics have pointed out that there is no evidence that CO2 produced by man is causing climate change. Why should we introduce a carbon tax?
You do realize the idiocy of Neville Chamberlain’s quote can be used both ways, correct?
Try not to make such silly connections between two unrelated points and you’ll have a bit more traction with any point you are attempting to make.
Mark
Surge protectors,ferrite beads,zenner diodes,power steering,wrapping a laptop in tin foil.Come on chaps. If,and I say, if the whole infrastructure of a country collapsed in an instant, protecting a few household electronic gadgets would be the least of your worries.Finding something to eat and then keeping the rampaging mob from taking it from you would be a prime concern.Best advice try to find a bottle of rum and a quiete corner to drink it in.
OK, I’m wrong. Many of the world’s military forces are not building EMP weapons and defenses because we have established here that they don’t work and are no threat.
http://www.milnet.com/e-bomb.htm
And lest we forget the only nation that has ever used a nuclear bomb on a civilian population – twice.
Terrorism? LOL Are you scared?
I wonder if they could counter it with as air burst of small metallic particles prior to the EMP ignition. If it could act as an air borne faraday cage?
markus1234,
What scares me most is the fact that we have a president with zero experience running anything. Terrorists have no fear of him at all. The situation reminds me of Iran when Jimmy Carter was president. The Iranians laughed at Carter for over a year. Then on the same day that Reagan was sworn in, Iran released every hostage.
If a president who is currently trashing his country overseas isn’t a recipe for encouraging future attacks, I don’t know what is.
And regarding your comment about using nuclear bombs in a war, maybe you should consider the alternative: click
Steven G., just to be complete, the ‘small’ car I have that occasionally loses PS on a right turn (when the belt gets splashed with water) is a 4,000 pound RWD (rear wheel drive) V-8 powered Chevy Caprice. The first time it happened was a REAL eye-opener, the second occurance conformed my suspician of what had happened the first time, thereafter it was expected.
marcus,
The Germans didn’t get to build a nuclear weapon because they were trying to send all their top Jewish scientists to the gas chamber. They killed 30 times as many people with common chemicals as died at Hiroshima.
Instead, Albert Einstein (the pacifist) wrote a letter to Roosevelt telling him how critically important it is for the US to make a bomb – which ultimately saved millions of lives in 1945 and has been a most effective deterrent against another world war – leading to 65 years of unprecedented quiet.
Hey Ceolfrith, thanks for the warning. 🙂
Actually, I once survived living in a disaster zone with no eletricity for over two months. I lived on the island of St. Thomas in 1995. On 9/15/95 hurricane Marilyn hit the island. Most of the electric lines were blown down. I was off island when the storm hit; I got back 10 days later.
Restoration of electric service did not begin until 2 months after the storm. I was lucky; the house I was living in was just up the road from the resort that the power crews were living in (and the start point for repairing the power lines). My landlady made a point of going down to the resort with cookies every day to bribe the crews. As they were coming up the hill, they made a left turn at the corner where our house was. The crew made a slight detour and we were the ONLY house on the right side of that intersection to get power restored.
Central power was down, but within a few weeks, everyone had an electric generator. I don’t know how long the gas stations were closed; they were fully functional by the time I got back on island.
I suspect that there were probably more businesses down there with emergency generators than on the mainland, so my experience there may not be relevant. But, people adapted very quickly. LIfe was not back to normal for a very long time, but we were able to survive and deal with the basics pretty quickly.
The day after the storm, I bought my first laptop. When I got back to the island, it was the only functioning computer in my office. Woo hoo! We had no electricity there…but another government office had a big generator so I went there every day to charge up my cell phone and laptop.
However, I have absolutely NO desire to ever go through that exprience again. It was boring. It was uncomfortable. It was frustrating (okay, life on that island was like that even BEFORE the storm…but it was more so afterwards). I really HATE the sound of hundreds of generators running during the night. My landlord and landlady only ran their generator for an hour or two in the morning and an hour or two at night (just so they could charge up the fridge).
“”” marcus1234 (14:18:47) :
And lest we forget the only nation that has ever used a nuclear bomb on a civilian population – twice. “””
Well Marcus,
I still remember exactly where I was sitting when we saw the newspaper stories about that first bomb. As it turns out, I was sitting in exactly the same spot talking with the same kids on Dec 8th 1941 when the attack on Pearl Harbor took place; and a year earlier we were all sitting there marvelling about the successful recovery of the British Expeditionary force from the beaches of Dunkirk; so I remember what life was like back then.
By the way; why on earth did the US have to drop that second bomb; how many seconds does it take to say “We quit” in Japanese. Had they known there was no third bomb; they would not have surrendered.
It’s easy in 20-20 hindsight to condemn a decision that was not made lightly. The next such decision you can bet will be made as soon as it is physically possible for them to do it; with no thought for the consequences.
George; who was there !
And it was made on military targets; not on civilians who happened to be in the area.
OT alert!
> Zenier Diodes
> ziener diodes
> zenner diodes
Come on guys, it’s Zener diodes. I heard him talk once at CMU. IIRC, he
had very little to do with the development, but knew the people who did.
They figured a name like Zener just had to be used for some device so they
used it for their’s.
If most people lose power-assisted steering and braking, they are going to crash. It takes more physical strength to control the vehicle than most drivers (females, elderly, or unfit) can muster.
I had a mid-1980s Detroit car. When the power locks went out, it took my full weight, applied through my accounting textbook, to lock it.
Besides the show of strength that will be needed, most such steering and braking systems have considerable “play” once the power-assist fails.
Ooops amazing how your eye can just look right past simple misspellings like that, while you are focused on other stuff. Added that critter to my spell check dictionary —- I hate it when I do that.
Larry
I allowed this guest post from Steven Goddard because I found its
technology content interesting.
However, in retrospect I realized the post (and the comments it generated) is actually far more political than I first thought.
Since that was not my intent and this has turned into more of political discussion than one of technology, which was the intent, I have decided to close comments.