Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack

http://www.nucpros.com/content/commission-assess-threat-united-states-electromagnetic-pulse-emp-attack

Commission to Assess the Threat. to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack
Submitted by NUCBIZ on October 17, 2011 - 15:10
By Bob Meyer

Dr. William Graham, the former Science Advisor to the President and Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President from 1986 to 1989 and Chairman of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from EMP Attack has written to the Chairman of the NRC to urge NRC further assessmets of EMP storms or attacks on nuclear power plants. The letter urges the NRC to include the EMP Attack consequences into the Fukushima assessment and change plans. This letter may want to be factored in the build of new plants.

The Commission to assess EMP was established by Congress through Title X, National Defense Authorization Act for Fixcal Year 2006.

This letter stated that an EMP can be generated naturally by a solar flare or coronal mass ejection from the Sun, which can produce a great geomagnetic storm on the Earth similar to some aspects of an EMP attack from a high-yield nuclear weapon, with similar catastrophic consequences. A great geomagnetic storm could cause the collapse of the electric grid and other critical infrastructures - transportation, communications, banking and finance, food and water-for a protracted period of months or years. A study by the National Academy of Sciences independently confirmed the EMP Commission's assessment that, if a great geomagnetic storm like the 1859 Carrington Event recurred today, recovery of the national electric power grid would take 4 to 10 years.

Such an event could also cause operators of the 108 nuclear plants in the United States to lose the ability to perform a safe, controlled shutdown of their power reactors, producing a Fukushima-like disaster on a large scale.

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