What Items Might Survive an EMP?
November 9, 2011, Submitted by: Ken Tweet
Identifying the systems that would probably fail if there were a strong-enough EMP from either a massive solar CME, a nuclear EMP weapon, or a tactical EMP bomb, is easier to speculate than items that might survive an EMP. There are some obvious items that would survive, but many are not that obvious.
An EMP, an ‘electro-magnetic-pulse’, is a side-effect of a nuclear explosion, a coronal mass ejection (from the Sun), or a purposed EMP bomb. An EMP is a near instantaneous and invisible ‘ZAP’ of electricity that surges through electrical wires and electrical semiconductor components. ‘IF’ the EMP is strong enough and the electronic components are close enough to the source, then these components could fry. Once they are fried, that’s it… they’re done. Only physical replacements will bring the systems back up and running.
So, while attempting to discover what items will survive an EMP, we need to know what is INSIDE the item… namely, if there are any electronic semiconductors (transistors, IC ‘chips’, microprocessors, etc.). It is the microscopic semiconductor ‘junctions’ themselves that are vulnerable to melting due to an excess of electrical current being forced through the junction (from the EMP).
Also, an EMP will be carried through overhead power lines (at the speed of light) and could instantaneously overwhelm power transformers along the grid with excess electrical current, causing the windings of the transformers to melt into a molten blob. The power lines will also carry the EMP (at the speed of light) far and wide into homes and businesses in search of semiconductors to fry.
Here’s another thing to know… an EMP’s energy will decay the further away from the source that you get. Electronic circuits that are further away will be less vulnerable to the EMP. How far away? Well that depends (of course). It depends on the overall strength of the EMP, the altitude of the EMP, the ‘line-of-sight’ distance from the EMP, and any protection that the device might have to protect it from an EMP.
After all that, the simple answer to what items might survive, are those items that do not contain semiconductors!
The problem is, nearly all devices today contain semiconductors!
If the device you are wondering about contains any digital interface whatsoever, then you can probably kiss it good-bye. Often it may be difficult to even know if there are semiconductors in a device. Even if there is no digital interface, there could still very well be semiconductors or electronic circuits somewhere inside.
Since winter is coming on, let’s talk Heaters.
Electric heaters… Fogetaboutit. The grid will probably be down.
Oil heat… The burner’s ignitor transformers, electronic control circuits, and electronic controlled pumps will fry. Plus, with no electrical power, the pumps won’t function.
Natural gas heat… The utility gas pressure will probably remain for awhile, but electronic thermostats or gas valve controllers may fry. Some basic-style natural gas heaters, such as wall units, could be lit manually though – until the pressure runs out.
Portable heaters… Most self-fueled heaters without electronic controls will survive – until your fuel source runs out. If it plugs in, it’s toast.
Wood Stove heater… Ding Ding Ding… we have a winner!
Let’s talk cars.
As most of us know, any new car today is jam packed full of electronics. Forget it. It’s dead.
Any car made with electronic ignition and fuel injection will probably stop in it’s tracks. Cars have been being built with these features longer than you may think (~1980′s). Depending on the exact vehicle, you may be somewhat ‘safe’ with a car built in the early 1980′s, 1970′s or earlier. It would take some significant research to list the vehicles built without these electronic systems, but suffice it to say that most any vehicle today is vulnerable to EMP failure (if close enough to the EMP source).
Let’s talk ‘general’.
Generally speaking, ranging from tools, to appliances, to heaters, to vehicles… if it has electronic circuits, it is vulnerable to EMP. This basically leaves hand tools, hand operated or primitive appliances, wood stove heat, and old vehicles. We’re talking living like the 1800′s or earlier.
While the threat of an EMP to the degree of mass outages is apparently slim, the fact is that it is not zero. A huge portion of the world population today relies on electricity for survival. It has enabled great advancements in civilization. The lack thereof could enable great setbacks to civilization.
Be prepared.
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@Ken, great post… Glad to see wide spectrum analysis… Yes another “Ding, Ding, Ding”, for M.S.B.. Always looking for the perfect post… I’m sure we will see more… Survive as always…
Not all electronics would be destroyed by a CME or EMP. However the power to run them would most likely be comprimised.
If you have a spare half hour or so you can read this paper written by Retired Navy Rear Admiral Physicist James A Marusek
Solar Storm Threat Analysis
I would think that those simple electric generators that run like a lawnmower, pull it, start it, and plug in your electric cords into it would be fine. I don’t think there are any semiconductors in these type of generators. I have two of these types, but I do not have the schematics of what is inside, lost the original instruction manual. I read that lawnmowers that have this simple pull and start it type engines would not be affected by EMP. These generators seem to be the same type of design, but I am not sure about it. Have another Sears generator that I know would be fried during an EMP though.
People have become so dependent on the electronic age, that is the real problem. I was watching children at the mall and how they do not even communicate with their parents anymore, they are on these hand held devices. There will be such a shock if and when the electronics are toast, this is the problem. People could make it without electronics aids, they have for the past thousands of years of civilization. The psychological shock will be devastating to most. Will they recover? Perhaps, perhaps not. The people that are strong will adapt, the majority of the rest, NOT!
A suggestion to EVERYONE is to TURN OFF your electronic world for awhile and go outside and see the world around you, without the tweets and beeps of something in your hand or pocket. Watched a little kid helping her mother pick up the mass of leaves that had collected, and said to myself that is something you just don’t see very often anymore. Just turn off the modern world for a period of time each day and it will help you feel less stress and PREPARE you if nature or manmade something shuts it permanently off for you.
I don’t know about generators. But my gasoline driven chainsaw (pull start) definately has a electronic ignition. An egine without electronic ignition would have to use old fashioned points.
My Vespa P200 scooter is made in 1977 and was the first model to be sold without a point-ignition. So anything running on gasoline after, say 1980 will be fried with a EMP.
Check for yourself: if the cable running to the sparkplug come from a sealed block of plastic, than chances are that it has an electronic ignition. If on the other hand the spark plug cable runs to a stator-plate, behind the flywheel, you will have a point igintion.
Hope this helps…
Because the effects of a nuke and/or an EMP wave drop of rapidly with distance it would be impossibel to use just one EMP device to cover the U.S. It would probably take 24 or so. Two points: 1)Why EMP? Anyone who drops a nuke on the U.S. has just started a nuclear war and will get 2000 back in their lap. If they want to have a nuclear war with us the ONLY decision would be should they send 2000 nukes or 4000. So don’t expect an EMP device. 2)EMP is imperfect and is pretty much line of sight. Even with a perfect grid of 24 EMP devices over the continental U.S. there would be major portions of the country pretty much unaffected and additional portions with 50% or less damage and more locations with 75% or less damage, etc. An EMP device is a poor choice for a super power or a terrorist.
A more likely scenario is that Iran does attack Israel and begins a nuclear war in the Mideast which ignites a wider spread of nuclear attacks. Not EMP’s just nuclear bombs.
@GWTW, Although the article is clearly not about nuke/EMP attack scenarios (it’s about the items that may or may not survive an EMP), I will bite at your Troll bait…
Your scenario of 24 EMP devices being necessary to take down the US could be accurate if those devices were used at very low altitude. Today, there are such things as the ability to orbit satellites (or launch them to sufficient ‘altitude’ with missiles – check out the Russian built SCUD launcher disguised in a shipping cargo container). Do some research… if a sufficient magnitude weapon were detonated at say, 300 miles altitude, the line of site is quite sufficient (take a look at the image at the top of the article for example – from a congressional report given by Gary Smith in 1997). Sure, yes, I agree that such a horrible attack would likely be met by mutual destruction (if we knew who did it, or if whoever was in the WH had some guts), but it would all be too late for us at that point – but now I’m way off topic and should follow my own Comments Policy and delete myself…
Hardly troll bait, it’s fact. You have hit on the problem. If you go high enough to give good coverage then you are too far away to have an effect. Every nuclear device including an EMP device has a series of wider and wider cones of effect under them. At 300 miles the narrowest and strongest cone directly under the device would be so weak by the time it reached the earth as to be moderate in it’s effects. The further you get from ground zero the weaker it gets. People in LA would probably not even know it happened while people in St. Louis might lose their light for a day but the cars would still work. The point I am making is not that an EMP attack would not be effective (but you would need a grid with about 24 EMP devices). The point is why would anyone use an EMP?? It is a nuclear attack without the ability to stop the target country from responding. Only a handful of countries could actually do it and they know we would counterattack within 30 minutes of their attack. So why would anyone use an EMP device against a super power? If Russia or China ever decide to attack us with nukes they will use 2000 of them with about 100 of them being Tsar super nuclear bombs. The only hope of any country attacking us is if they can destroy us in the first wave. They can’t so they would have to build hardened shelters and hope they could survive our retalitory strike. It is of course mutually assured destruction.
Now a terrorist WOULD use a nuke on us if they had one. But they don’t have delivery systems or access to super nukes or EMP devices. The best they could hope for is to destroy a city like New York or Washington DC. And they wouldn’t care about retalliation because in their mind killing a million Americans would be worth the total destruction of Iran.
A solar EMP is a very real possibility and powerful enough to destroy our electric power distribution system and virtually all electrical equipment. No arguement about that risk.
@GWTW, Your proclamation is apparently not fact. Check out ‘Starfish Prime’.
In July 1962, a 1.44 megaton (6.0 PJ) United States nuclear test in space, 400 kilometres (250 mi) above the mid-Pacific Ocean, called the Starfish Prime test, demonstrated to nuclear scientists that the magnitude and effects of a high altitude nuclear explosion were much larger than had been previously calculated. Starfish Prime 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.[7]
Starfish Prime was the first successful test in the series of United States high-altitude nuclear tests in 1962 known as Operation Fishbowl. The subsequent Operation Fishbowl tests gathered more data on the high-altitude EMP phenomenon.
Most discussion on EMP is on the effects on infrastructure systems such as the obvious electric power system. I am curious what would have happen to the transportation system in particular, commercial airlines. Are commercial airplanes susceptible to EMP?
In a word, yes. From the research I’ve done, commercial airlines are now computer controlled and use electricity to fly, which means that when EMP hits, they would be shut down. The planes will drop like flies, and according to the One Second after website, 250,000 to 500,000 people would die when the planes crash. (http://www.onesecondafter.com/pb/wp_d10e87d9/wp_d10e87d9.html, see “AND PLANES?” section.)
…and his book can be found here, One Second After
I would I protect a back-up generator from an EMP?
@joe, if you meant to say, “How would I protect a back-up generator from an EMP?”, I would suggest keeping it in a metal storage shed that is grounded (wire-bonded from the metal to a ground rod).
This doesn’t affect me, thankfully, but I’m curious about pacemakers and insulin pumps, etc. I remember reading recently that hackers can get into pacemaker systems somehow. I guess these are a newer breed that can be adjusted externally via a computer?? My memory may be way off on the mechanics of it, but I DO remember clearly that they can be hacked and messed with. Curious if an EMP would harm such things, too. What about someone on a portable oxygen pump? No more dialysis? Can something like that run on a generator? WOULD they even run them on generators or would there be greater healthcare issues to manage first? Wow…
@ Kelly. Do you what is going to happen to those dependent on the modern medical system when ANYTHING shuts down society; EMP, war, economic collapse, super natural disaster? These people are going to die. There are people that COMPLETELY are reliant on modern medical treatment to live and literally cannot make it without this for even 48 hours just are not going to make it and become statistics. People that are dependent on the medical system absolutely need to have back ups of their own to at least make it ALONE for a week minimum. This means having extra oxygen tanks, extra insulin, etc. PEOPLE MUST STOP ASSUMING THAT ALL ASPECTS OF THE MODERN WORLD WILL BE THERE FOR THEM ALL THE TIME NO MATTER WHAT, THESE PEOPLE THAT REFUSE TO ARE SIMPLY DOOMED.
So
Yall should look into how to build a faraday cage or faraday boxes to protect your equipment and or cars. Not like in the long run it will make much of a difference in a solar flare situation…
But it might keep you and your stuff running long enough to get to a “safer” place.
Although the more I have been researching the more I realize that if the sun does produce a massive solar flare there will be no escaping the radiation from all the failing Nuclear power plants at once (at least if your in the northern hemisphere). The southern hemisphere has only 3 or 4 (known) nuclear power plants vs. the hundreds in the north and thankfully due to the airstreams there is little to no crossover. Something to think about.
I know where Im going if the sun does what it does!
Thank you for the post.
I dont know how feasible or not feasible it is to worry about an emp. And who says it would have to be an enemy? From what I have read it could be our good old friend the sun sending a solar flare our way. And I dont think you would have to take the whole US down in order to make huge issues. I cant imagine the fun that would be unleashed if an emp took down even the east coast. Or Washington DC. I personally dont want to think about freezing my fanny off during the winter even if the grid was just for a few weeks.
No need to risk a missile sent to emp the U.S. The Russians have a “malfunctioning” satllite that they may have to auto destruct it before it falls to land, Opps blew it up over The U.S. lights out.
Here in the Netherlands almost all our power lines are underground.
There are a few mainline above ground, but most are not.
Does that mean an EMP won’t be harmful here?
@sufi, You are definitely better prepared and less vulnerable with power lines underground. However, a pulse that is induced in any above-ground wiring may also end up traveling along in underground wiring – assuming that much of the overall system structure is interconnected. Underground wiring though will not pick up any ‘extra’ voltage/current induction because the pulse will be stopped as it enters the ground (it will penetrate somewhat – but most underground wiring is at least 18″ underground in conduit).
@ Ken, Thank you for your feed back as regards underground power. That’s one that at times I have thought about. There is the issue in the back of my mind regarding the power source that feeds an area that has buried power lines? Not much good having underground power if your power is, as most grid power is, from afar… Just saying… Survive-All…
You can order 1 nanosecond surge protectors and cages for your generators at:
empandsolarprotection.com
They are in Florida and the products are professional and sophisticated.
Fireproof file cabinets and safes can hold electronics wrapped inside to protect them.
Contact your local utility and ask them to “harden” their facilities before it is too late.
It takes a long time to get a transformer replaced from Korea.
Although fiction, I suggest reading “One Second After”
just for a few thoughts on the subject. Quite realistic.
Are Solar Panels safe from EMP? Thinking of investing in portable ones that can be taken with me in a bugout pack etc.
Simon, Solar panels are not safe from EMP. There are blocking diodes built-in to the panels which ‘might’ burn out. This is something that I am interested to explore further – that is, how much would it take to burn out these diodes. Having said that, there are other concerns such as the electronics that are inside the charge controllers and the inverters. It is feasible, although expensive, to keep some spare panels in a shielded storage area, along with spare electronic parts. It may be more reasonable to discover where these diodes are located within, and then you could keep spares of just the diodes (provided you know how to replace them, soldering, etc.).
My gut tells me that unless the EMP is relatively ‘nearby’ (assuming a man-made weapon), that the induced voltages in the panels may be low enough not to exceed the breakdown voltage and current of the diodes. It’s something I need to discover the specifics of… Thanks for the comment.