EMP Legislation Awaits Senate Action Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010
The U.S. House of Representatives has approved legislation on protecting the nation's electrical system from the effects of an electromagnetic pulse, leaving the bill to be considered by the Senate, USA Today reported today (see GSN, Sept. 21). Observers warn that the detonation of a nuclear weapon in the atmosphere or a major solar event could create a magnetic pulse that would disable all electrical operations in a particular area. "We're taking this seriously," Edison Electric Institute official Ed Legge said. He cited a June report from the North American Electric Reliability Corp., which found that the EMP danger to U.S. electrical systems "may be much greater than anticipated." There exist "some important reasons for concern," said Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics scientist Yousaf Butt. "But there is also a lot of fluff." A 1962 hydrogen bomb test 900 miles from Hawaii produced a pulse that shut down streetlights in the city of Oahu. Today's worries come amid known or suspected nuclear-weapon drives by nations such as North Korea and Iran and fears that terrorists might one day acquire an atomic bomb. "The high-altitude nuclear-weapon-generated electromagnetic pulse is one of a small number of threats that has the potential to hold our society seriously at risk," according to a 2008 report from the U.S. EMP Commission. A nuclear explosion at an altitude of 25 to 500 miles would create atmospheric ionization that would in turn produce multiple electromagnetic pulses. The bomb's blueprint and the altitude at which it was detonated are among the factors that would determine how far the pulses traveled. "One weapon of this kind that went off over Omaha would eliminate most of the electrical production in the United States," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said in 2009, noting the findings of the EMP Commission. Not everyone agreed. "You would really need something the size of a Soviet H-bomb to have effects that cross many states," said Butt, an astrophysicist. Former Defense Threat Reduction Agency chief Stephen Younger in a 2009 book asserted that an EMP attack would produce an impact that would not last for an extended period and would be more restricted than projected by other analysts. A terrorist organization would have to acquire a missile along with a nuclear weapon to conduct an EMP attack. Any nation that carried out such a strike or equipped extremists to do so would face a devastating response from the United States. "If there are nuclear bombs exploding, we have lots of really, really big problems besides the power grid," Legge said (Dan Vergano, USA Today, Oct. 27). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. ~Winston Churchill [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [email protected]. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [email protected] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [email protected] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtmlYahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
