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by pepsi boy on June 12th, 2005

pepsi boy

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Could a midair detonation of a nuclear bomb cause a country's entire electrical power grid to be destroyed for several years? If so, how?

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  • by Glenn Blaylock on July 26th, 2005

    Glenn Blaylock

    Actually it is a mistaken idea that a midair nuclear detonation could cause the kind of havoc you describe. However, such a detonation much higher up can be devastating. You would have to get the nuke almost completely out of the atmosphere to a level where there is a high concentration of ions (atomic and molecular particles that carry electrical charges). Whenever a charged particle moves, it creates a magnetic field. This magnetic field can, in turn, cause other charged particles to move. This can create electrical currents. At the uppermost reaches of the atmosphere (the ionosphere) radiation from the sun is intense enough to ionize the gas molecules creating a high concentration of ions. If you then detonate a nuke at these levels, the shockwave will move a whole lot of ions creating a very strong electro-magnetic pulse (EMP). The more powerful the nuke, the stronger the EMP. An EMP created in this manner can be strong enough to create electrical currents in integrated circuits that are strong enough to burn them out. This would destroy most modern electronic devices. It would not matter if the devices are on or not they would be destroyed. So, such a detonation would shut down a countries power grid by destroying all of the computers that control the systems. However it would do more than this. It would shut down most modern cars since they use computers. Radio stations, TV stations, personal electronics, anything that uses integrated circuits or transistors would be destroyed. Such a detonation could take a modern industrialized nation and throw it back into the stone-age.

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    maddock,

    According to what I learned in my electromagnetic theory class in college, in order to protect electronic devices from this kind of attack, you would have to completely isolate the from outside electromagnetic connections. This means that they would have to have a power supply within the shielding and no antennas, phone lines, or wires of any sort leading outside of the shielding. Any such wires would be a conduit by which the EMP could penetrate the shielding. Most control system would not be able to operate in such isolation, especially those system that control the power grid. So, in order for such shielding to work, the operators would have to know that the attack was coming and physically disconnect all external wires and seal up the shielding before the EMP came. This is my understanding of the situation. However, in the interest of full disclosure, I must also mention that my information could be dated. I took that class over a decade ago. So, there could have been significant advances since that time.

    Comments

    • EMP shielded devices are used by most defense organizations (EMP hardening)

      maddock

      by maddock on August 28th, 2005

    • you can shield these devices and still have outside connections using optical coupling as is done in medical equipment.

      Anonymous

      by Anonymous on September 14th, 2005

    • Logistically, you cannot shield everything, which was the point of the question.

      RedJohn

      by RedJohn on October 11th, 2005

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