# Electromagnetic Pulses



## xDXxAscension (Jan 16, 2016)

I'm researching EMP's for an upcoming story, just wanting to get some more knowledge and background into them before I start off writing randomly and making it sound really dumb and make no sense what so ever.

So I got this much from *Edison Electrical Institute*


> _Myth: An EMP event that would take down the grid is “easy to perpetrate.”_
> Fact: This is false. To fully understand the likelihood, we must again understand the threats
> 
> 
> ...



So I'm interested in what anyone else might have info wise.


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## Winston (Jan 17, 2016)

First, if you have the time, read "One Second After" by William R. Forstchen.  It explains the effects in great detail.

Now, I'm sure that the Edison Electrical Institute isn't totally biased, but it is in their self-interest to downplay the likelihood of an EMP.  After all, upgrading and "hardening" infrastructure is expensive, and that cuts into corporate profits.  It's cheaper to play it down and accuse realists as "alarmists".

Directed Energy Weapons are a bit out of real-world usage, impractical.  Your corporate source is simply trying to re-direct with a "straw-man" argument.

An atomic airburst is actually quite possible.  Every day, container ships with thousands of boxes cross into our territorial waters.  Very few are ever inspected. A crude launch system would be easy to install.   

The North Koreans and Iranians both have reliable IRBMs (Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles) with ranges of up to 2000 miles.  Of course, so does India, Pakistan, and many other nations.  While we have little intel at this time, at some point soon the rouge states will be able to shrink their warheads to fit on an IRBM.

Launched to an altitude of twenty miles or so, a nuclear explosion will cause significant damage most electronics within a wide geographic area.  Both the US and former USSR have done extensive testing confirming this.  In fact, the USSR scrapped their ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) system because it involved air-bursting nukes above the Moscow metro area.  While the blasts would intercept NATO ICBM's, the pulse from such weapons would cripple the heart of Russia.

Hope that helped.


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## voltigeur (Jan 18, 2016)

EMP affects different types of electronics differently. Old vacuum tube technology is only temporarily affected. While unprotected solid state circuitry is destroyed. Solid state communications equipment is protected by aluminum wool put in the casing so will work after the initial pulse. 


The strategy of EMP during the cold war was that if you detonate one nuclear bomb high over the continent. The EMP would disrupt communications slowing the defender's response. A Missile could get a warhead to EMP position in 15 to 20 min. The EMP if is lasted 2 or 3 min would disrupt the command cycle delaying launch long enough to catch opposing forces still on the ground. (That was the Idea anyway.) 

Both USA and USSR knew about this and had defenses against it. 


Not sure how a terrorist would use EMP. A hand or cargo delivered bomb would be detonated to destroy a city and cause casualties. The EMP would simply be a by product.


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