Palladin
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Departing commissioners, who served without pay, include a former Pentagon director of defense research, a former Department of Energy chief operating officer and a former director of the National Reconnaissance Office. The commission also had six professional staffers and a support contractor, Strategic Analysis Inc.
Must be a nice gig, spending decades as staff/support for a committee to "assess" a threat that may never actually materialize.BostonHerald said:William Graham, the 16-year chairman of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack, said he is worried about the nation’s ability to develop defenses against the threat of a high-altitude nuclear blast shutting down the U.S. power grid. “I’m concerned that the country is going to lose both the experience and the knowledge that the commissioners have brought (and) also the knowledge and support of extremely competent professional staff,” ... The commission’s website was taken down over the weekend. Departing commissioners, who served without pay, include a former Pentagon director of defense research, a former Department of Energy chief operating officer and a former director of the National Reconnaissance Office. The commission also had six professional staffers and a support contractor,
Yes, the commissioners served without pay, but what kind of expense budget did they get?
Probably, but spreading doom-and-gloom FUD is a lot more fun and profitable.I'm not buying the "single nuke in upper atmosphere will shut down the grid." I think that'd only work in a sci-fi movie.
LA Times said:Last month, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) released the first in a series of reports from a study looking at the potential effects of a single high-altitude electromagnetic pulse. The study concentrated on the fleet of 37,000 bulk power transformers in the continental U.S.
Such large transformers, commonly seen in substations, are greater than 69,000 volts and convert electricity from high-voltage electricity to levels that are distributed around neighborhoods.
“We found that there would likely be some failures, but those failures are relatively small in nature and not in the hundreds as had been contemplated from some of the reports in the past,” EPRI’s Manning said.
I'm not buying the "single nuke in upper atmosphere will shut down the grid." I think that'd only work in a sci-fi movie.
http://empbomb.blogspot.com/2008/10/history.htmlThe existence of this electromagnetic pulse has been known since the 1940’s.It was when the nuclear weapons were being developed and tested.However, the effects of an EMP bomb were not fully known until 1962 because of lack of data. At that time, the United States was conducting a series of high-altitude atmospheric tests named "Fishbowl” .The nuclear weapons designers ignited hydrogen bombs over the Pacific Ocean. The detonations created bursts of gamma rays. The gamma rays strike the oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere, released electrons that spread for hundreds of miles. As a result, street lights in Hawaii were blown out and radio navigation was disrupted for 18 hours, as far away as Australia. Then, the United States start to learn how to "harden" electronics against this electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and develop EMP weapons.