Solar Storms and EMP Threats

American Dependence on 350 High Voltage Transformers Could Be Our Fatal Mistake

September 23, 2010

The Prophetic Years - I have written on this topic before, but since I believe this is the number one danger to the survival of our nation, and since our government is not doing anything about it, I am going to lightly touch on this subject once again. If you want to find out more detailed information on this subject, click on the links and also follow the reference links contained within those articles.

Modern life in America is now dependent on about 350 very high voltage transformers. These transformers are at risk from a solar coronal mass ejection (CME) or a nuclear electromagnet pulse (EMP) from an enemy. I believe a nuclear EMP attempt is very likely to be tried against America within the decade. An CME EMP that could do the same amount of damage is actually a natural event from the sun that occurs about every 50 to 100 years. We have had major flares on the Sun in 1859 and 1921 that probably would have fried some modern transformers and some electronics.

Today we have a national electrical grid, and electronics control just about everything. So an EMP that would shut down our grid for a long period of time, or damage our electronics, would be catastrophic to our nation.

About every 22 years solar activity peaks with large X class flares occurring during those peaks. But fortunately, in the more recent peak solar cycles, the CME’s from the X class flares on the sun either missed the earth, just glazed the earth, or where not powerful enough to do much damage. We cannot continue to expect little damage in the future if our national grid and electronics remain vulnerable to EMP’s.

We will have another solar max coming in 2012-2013 and there is every indication to believe that this solar max could be more active than unusual. So, not protecting our grid is playing Russian Roulette with the life of our electric and electronic dependent nation.

The estimate of damage from either a nuclear EMP or a 1859 or 1921 type solar storm is $1 to $2 trillion in the first year alone. However, that figure does not even include the costs of any social breakdown that would be inevitable. The experts that I have read say that if most of America lost power for even months, 60 to 90 percent of the population of America would die from the side effects. Just imagine what would happen in your own large city if there was no electricity for months. There would be little food, little clean water, no heat or air, no industry, no income, no fuel, but there would be predator gangs and vigilantes.

You might wonder why it could take years to get the electrical grid back up? The main reason is that there are about 350 very large, very high voltage transformers being used to step-up the voltage so that electricity can be transmitted for hundreds of miles on the power grid. High voltage transformers on the grid could be fried by the electrical current buildup generated in those lines from an EMP. These step-up transformers weight 100 or more tons and they are not made in America. There is now a three year backlog on buying these high voltage transformers. They take a long time to make, even if the manufactures had the electricity to produce them, and that might not even be the case.

Obviously the electrical and electronic damage from a strong EMP would be immense. The damage would not just be limited to these large transformers, but other equipment probably could be replaced or repaired in much less time. These high voltage transformers could not be replaced for years.

Our government is aware of this danger. The cost to make the modifications to protect the transformers will only cost a few $100 million, but politics always seems to get in the way of our government taking the necessary action to protect our nation (just like the border issue). Instead of the House pushing a separate bill to deal with the grid transformer problem, the House attached it to a bill about many issues and the Senate come up with their own version that did not include funding for the transformers and the bill did not pass anyway. So in spite of all warnings about the dangers of a solar EMP, even from NASA, it will now be too late to fix this transformer vulnerability before the next solar max hits us within two years.

That could be a fatal mistake for America, and those in our government that are dismissing the nuclear EMP threat could also be making a fatal mistake..

Don’t expect God to exempt “Christians” in America if a EMP happens. In fact, an EMP could be the very thing used by God to chastise “Christian” America and remove her as a world superpower in very short order. Katrina might have been a warning shot. Most Christians were not exempt from the death and suffering caused by that natural earth storm.

Here are a couple of clips from two recent articles on this subject. I do hope you read the full articles and check the links so that you will be fully informed. What you then decide to do with that information is really between you and God.

“The Solar ‘Katrina’ Storm That Could Take Our Power Grid Out For Years”

By Lawrence E. Joseph
July 15, 2010

“John Kappenman, 55, an obscure electrical engineer from Duluth, Minnesota, is determined to save civilization from the mother of all blackouts. If he succeeds, the daily life of billions around the world will continue undisrupted. But if he fails, we may well suffer on a scale that makes even World Wars seem trivial in comparison. Over the past thirty years, Kappenman has accumulated a vast and compelling body of evidence indicating that sooner or later a major blast of EMP (electromagnetic pulse) from the Sun, a space weather Katrina, will knock out the electrical power grid and bring society to its knees.

“Historically large storms have a potential to cause power grid blackouts and transformer damage of unprecedented proportions. An event that could incapacitate the network for a long time could be one of the largest natural disasters we could face,” he declares. A bluff, friendly man, half science nerd, half overgrown farm boy, Kappenman insists that solar EMP blasts the size of those that occurred in 1859 (before society was electrified) and 1921(before the power grid had developed to the point where it played any significant role) would today result in large-scale blackouts lasting for months or years.

Full article

U.S. Warned of Threat Worse Than Katrina, Plague, WWII

Millions could die: 'This is clearly not something you ever want to experience'

By Bob Unruh, WorldNetDaily
August 12, 2010

Bill Heid, who runs Solutions from Science, which offers a number of remedies for the possibility of extended power outages and food shortages, said the fact that such a “surge” of power would accumulate in the power grid like a radio wave collects in an antenna means that the most critical components of the grid – the massive transformers that regulate power flow – probably would be hit hardest.

The transformers, sometimes weighing in at 200 tons, cannot be replaced at the drop of a hat, nor are there a multitude of backups available. That, he explained, is why Kappenman estimated recovery could take up to 10 years.

The units would have to be manufactured, delivered and installed. And how would one install a 200-ton transformer without local access to power equipment (run by diesel pumped by electric pumps) and other such conveniences in the modern world? Also, how would one ship such equipment without being able to pump fuel into a cargo ship?

Heid noted that an electric storm that was recorded in 1859 had little effect because of the agrarian nature of the nation, where people were only a matter of steps from milk, eggs, butter, meat and even grain.

Further, the social unrest from diminishing and unstable food and water supplies also could be catastrophic, he noted.

“The fallout from that would be in a category … we have difficulty thinking about,” he said.

Kappenman said in the interview the events recorded in 1859, and again in 1921, are not only probable to repeat, but inevitable.

“There is nothing that has changed in the physics of the sun … that will preclude a large storm from occurring again in the future. These are a certainty to occur in the future,” he said.

EMP is a pulse of energy that can be produced from nonnuclear sources, such as electromagnetic bombs. Some experts claim an electromagnetic-pulse shock wave can be produced by a device small enough to fit in a briefcase. But the most threatening and terrifying type of EMP attack could come following a blast from a nuclear weapon 25 to 250 miles above the Earth’s surface. Like a swift stroke of lightning, EMP could immediately disrupt and damage all electronic systems and America’s electrical infrastructure.

A detonation over the middle of the continental U.S. “has the capability to produce significant damage to critical infrastructures that support the fabric of U.S. society and the ability of the United States and Western nations to project influence and military power,” said Graham.

“Several potential adversaries have the capability to attack the United States with a high-altitude nuclear-weapon-generated electromagnetic pulse, and others appear to be pursuing efforts to obtain that capability,” said Graham.

“A determined adversary can achieve an EMP attack capability without having a high level of sophistication. For example, an adversary would not have to have long-range ballistic missiles to conduct an EMP attack against the United States. Such an attack could be launched from a freighter off the U.S. coast using a short- or medium-range missile to loft a nuclear warhead to high altitude. Terrorists sponsored by a rogue state could attempt to execute such an attack without revealing the identity of the perpetrators. Iran, the world’s leading sponsor of international terrorism, has practiced launching a mobile ballistic missile from a vessel in the Caspian Sea. Iran has also tested high-altitude explosions of the Shahab-III, a test mode consistent with EMP attack, and described the tests as successful. Iranian military writings explicitly discuss a nuclear EMP attack that would gravely harm the United States. While the commission does not know the intention of Iran in conducting these activities, we are disturbed by the capability that emerges when we connect the dots.”

Full article