North Korea Tests 'Super-EMP' Nuke

[SIZE=+1]North Korea Tests 'Super-EMP' Nuke[/SIZE]
<SMALL>Newsmax ^| Thursday, 16 Jun 2011 09:05 AM | Ken Timmerman </SMALL>



North Korea’s last round of tests, conducted in May 2009, appear to have included a “super-EMP” weapon, capable of emitting enough gamma rays to disable the electric power grid across most of the lower 48 states, says Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, a former CIA nuclear weapons analyst and president of EMPact America, a citizens lobbying group.

Samore, who handles arms control and non-proliferation issues, warned that “additional strong sanctions will be imposed on the North with the support of Russia and China."

North Korea’s nuclear tests have been dismissed as failures by some analysts because of their low explosive yield. But Dr. Pry believes they bore the “signature” of the Russian-designed “super-EMP” weapon, capable of emitting more gamma radiation than a 25-megaton nuclear weapon.

Rep. Trent Franks, who authored the SHIELD Act, warned of “catastrophic consequences” should Congress fail to act. “The U.S. society and economy are so critically dependent upon the availability of electricity that a significant collapse of the grid, precipitated by a major natural or man-made EMP event, could result in catastrophic civilian casualties,” he said. “This vulnerability, if left unaddressed, could have grave, societal altering consequences.”

(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...



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I guess it's time this topic moves from Tin Foil Hat and Popular (Lights Out) fiction to general discussion. Stories like this never make the media because they are covering Weiner-gate, the Anthony case and stirring feuds between conservative candidates. In the interest of "watching what the other hand is doing" I think this is a monster story. YMMV

 

That's pretty horrifying. I have not read "Lights Out", but I have read "One second after" and it was very sobering (scared the S out of me).

Reading the full article, especially where it is stated that both the 'D' (Jeff Bingamin) and 'R' (Lisa Murkowski) Senators continue to choose to do NOTHING to harden the grid against EMP show that neither of the two parties can be relied on and we are most likely screwed. This makes me furious. I have the bad feeling that the SHIELD act will not be enacted either. With all of the money this government wastes on things like public art, dumb studies on how the green-boobied pink-speckled housefly can live in subzero temperatures, and foreign aid to countries that hate us, doing spending that can actually save civilization itself is put on the back burner.

 

I'm sorry if this is a re-post Broker. The Newsmax article is less than 5 days old and I didn't see it discussed here and I hadn't read about these North Korean tests (in this EMP context) or the Iranian connection. I have seen General Burgess' testimony discussed, but couldn't find the post in this forum and couldn't recall where I saw the discussion. At any rate, it certainly brings "Lights Out" home to me and I thought I'd contribute something once in a while. Thanks for your input.

 

the best way to get something thru peoples heads sometimes is to repeat it.
sometimes repeatedly

 

I don't know if Russia was giving assistance to N. Korea before on manufacturing an EMP weapon though. From what I understand, the NKs are very technologically bassackwards, but if the Russians have helped them make such a weapon, it makes me very worried. Especially if the Ruskies also helped them to develop (or outright sold to the NKs) a delivery package.

 

Read Lights Out. One Second After is a Worst Case scenario, Lights Out is a Best Case scenario. Both give many many ideas that may come in handy.

 

1.4 to 1.46 megaton:

"Starfish Prime caused an electromagnetic pulse which was far larger than expected, so much larger that it drove much of the instrumentation off scale, causing great difficulty in getting accurate measurements. The Starfish Prime electromagnetic pulse also made those effects known to the public by causing electrical damage in Hawaii, about 1,445 kilometres (898 mi) away from the detonation point, knocking out about 300 streetlights, setting off numerous burglar alarms and damaging a telephone company microwave link. The EMP-damaged microwave link shut down telephone calls from Kauai to the other Hawaiian islands."
Starfish Prime - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It is fairly easy to do; if one wishes to risk nuclear retaliation.

 

I just finished "Lights out" I enjoyed it and took mental notes as I read.

 

thinking of wrapping my shack in the woods with aluminum foil
why not make the whole structure a faraday cage?
when its done i wont be hooked to anything outside anyway
and it wont be that big to start with

 

I think turning your garage or outbuilding into a faraday cage makes a lot of sense. I had already included that in my plans for my retreat as well. Also going to invest in an old Willys jeep, just in case.

When the SHTF, i really hope its not a nationwide EMP attack. I think I would rather be instant toast in a full blown nuke war than that. The scenario set down in the plot of "One second after" is something I truly don't think the country could recover from. I have added "Lights out" to my reading list though.

 

hmm.. I just finished reading One Second after on Friday of last week....

oh great...

I mean in reality, there is nothing that the gov't could do to protect the grid at this time. It would take another "public works" project from gov't subsidies to harden a sufficient amount of the country. This would take years considering all the exposed transmission lines along the highway criss -crossing the country. Seeing as the US is broke and there is no political will this will probably not happen.

Personally I think EMP( provided that the gov't only focuses on saving core infrastructure like nuke plants and maybe some stockpiles) would probably be the best outcome for humanity. It would reset the wheel and pretty much put a stop to everything instantly because none of this could go on much longer.

In a global economic collapse, the results would be nearly the same as EMP but there would still be functional electronics, radars, drones, missiles, planes, etc, moreso than things that were unsheilded from emp. Because of this, with economic collapse- I think there would be less to rebuild as people fought and put all the remaining resources to dominating their backyards rather than trying to figure out how to keep themselves and thier progeny alive

 

The problem is, hitting that 'reset button' is going to cause massive death - it'll be the biggest 'die-off' of a major species since the prehistoric mammals got wiped out in the last big Ice Age. We industrialized nations have our entire civilization built on electrical technology, and we have made the Third World totally dependent on us and our technology too. A few would survive as their ancestors did, but most will sit in the dirt waiting on those UN trucks to come with food and water........
Our trucks won't run, the airplanes will be grounded, the grid down hard.
If we are lucky, we will begin getting it back up, in pockets and localized areas. But our society will take a big one to the groin.......