- Mar 22, 2011
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What's happening in Puerto Rico is a warning for what could happen here. This article is long on explaining the problem and short on solutions, but still worth reading. An excerpt:
Among natural threats to the electric grid, solar storms are perhaps the most serious. A solar storm causes the Earth's magnetic field to move and induce large direct currents in long conductors, such as power lines and communications cables. The 1859 Carrington Event was so powerful that some telegraph operators were electrocuted by voltages induced in the wires. Fortunately, in 1859, the power grid did not exist. A smaller March 1989 solar storm crashed the Quebec power grid and destroyed a large power transformer at the Salem nuclear generating station in New Jersey. If the 1989 solar storm had been as severe as the Carrington Event, much of the North American grid could have gone down for months or years.
Since a solar storm is associated with the mass ejection of charged particles from the Sun, it is possible to have a warning and possibly prevent damage to the grid by turning off the grid until the storm is over. Obviously, a deliberate blackout would be inconvenient, but not as inconvenient as a blackout lasting for years. But electric utilities are unlikely to proactively turn off the grid, because their insurance companies have policy exclusions for "intentional acts."
Deliberate physical attack and sabotage of the grid are also major threats. But perhaps the biggest danger would be an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) created by detonation of a nuclear device above the atmosphere. The North Koreans have already threatened an EMP attack.
A small nuclear weapon detonated 200 miles above Kansas would create no direct damage – only a bright flash in the sky. But gamma rays released from the explosion would interact with atoms in the upper atmosphere, knocking electrons loose. These electrons would move in a spiral path as they interact with the Earth's magnetic field. Strong electric and magnetic fields would strike the entire United States as a kind of electromagnetic shockwave. There would also be slower variations in the Earth's magnetic field, much like the effect of a solar storm.
Since a solar storm is associated with the mass ejection of charged particles from the Sun, it is possible to have a warning and possibly prevent damage to the grid by turning off the grid until the storm is over. Obviously, a deliberate blackout would be inconvenient, but not as inconvenient as a blackout lasting for years. But electric utilities are unlikely to proactively turn off the grid, because their insurance companies have policy exclusions for "intentional acts."
Deliberate physical attack and sabotage of the grid are also major threats. But perhaps the biggest danger would be an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) created by detonation of a nuclear device above the atmosphere. The North Koreans have already threatened an EMP attack.
A small nuclear weapon detonated 200 miles above Kansas would create no direct damage – only a bright flash in the sky. But gamma rays released from the explosion would interact with atoms in the upper atmosphere, knocking electrons loose. These electrons would move in a spiral path as they interact with the Earth's magnetic field. Strong electric and magnetic fields would strike the entire United States as a kind of electromagnetic shockwave. There would also be slower variations in the Earth's magnetic field, much like the effect of a solar storm.
