EMP

Short-circuiting the electromagnetic threat

Electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is a major threat to the continued existence of America. An enemy could destroy our nation simply by detonating a single nuclear weapon above the atmosphere over our country. All our enemies, including some terrorist groups, have, or can acquire, this capability. The electromagnetic pulse from this detonation would destroy our national electric power grid, and it would take many months or years to rebuild it. Without electricity, virtually all our everyday life-support systems would remain paralyzed, and millions would die of disease or starvation.

Protection from this threat would be relatively simple and affordable, but for decades our leaders have refused to take action. This is because of near-total disagreement over the threat. The tragedy is that those who support protection against EMP know what they’re talking about, and those who deny the threat don’t. One would think this type of dispute would be easily resolvable. But not in this case. Here’s why.

EMP was discovered — almost by accident — by our nuclear weapons scientists during the Cold War. It loomed as an immense threat, and these scientists plunged into understanding it. Everything about EMP was highly classified — at least secret, often top secret. A great many of our underground nuclear weapon tests in the 1970s and 1980s focused on EMP. They were intensively instrumented. Progressively, EMP came to be understood as a complex scientific phenomenon. But it was still highly classified, and the only individuals who had access to scientific data on EMP were government nuclear weapons scientists.