Brits Prepare for EMP Blasts, Solar Flares
- Thread starter Greg Tito
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it's the correct decision, thoughThe Artificially Prolonged said:
investing in snow gear for the 0-4 days a year it snows in the uk is totally pointless as the cost to buy and maintain said gear is higher than the damages to the economy if people make preparations before and after
top-gear actually addressed this issue, using a large tractor with a blade attachment to clear roads
( something i personally think the government should start applying because it's just intelligent use of resources )
however the possibility of thousands of miles of phone / power cable being fried in an instant,
disabling the country for an indefinite period until they are totally replaced, ( more resources and an incredible amount of manpower ) not to mention damages to government computers and private power systems and backup generators for hospitals
in plain English the uk government is taking the people > money attitude
seems logical to me
It's really not that scary. A large EMP wouldn't do anywhere near the damage this article is implying. It would disrupt radio waves and (depending on proximity) fry anything not behind a fuse/surge protector, but it's not going to do any real damage outside of a 800ish meter radius. There's simply not enough power anywhere for a strong EMP to reach any further.CardinalPiggles said:
The most noticeable impact of it, assuming you live away from ground zero, will be a complete scrambling of radio waves for a minute or so. If you're in ground zero, you'll probably be shocked to some degree (at worst, on par with a lightning strike, but it really depends on your surroundings, and none of it will be from the EMP directly), and most of your electronics will probably need replacing, but that's about it.
State is the official/formal term for a government. It has nothing to do with provinces of a particular country (even though the US co-opted the term for its members).j-e-f-f-e-r-s said:
Mostly because a 9 hour blackout is not all that bad. It's inconvenient as all hell sure, but it's not gonna hurt anyone.Berenzen said:
I agree with you that the UK is taking the sensible approach to it, but you're overestimating the damage an EMP will do. The wires will be just fine. We won't need to replace many wires at all. There will be some that melt certainly, but the vast majority of them will be in a situation that's as easy as possible to replace.The Lugz said:
The worst of the damage (at least with regards to infrastructure) will be the transformers. Most of those are likely to explode, figuratively speaking, under the strain of a strong EMP and will therefore need replacing. Most personal electronics within range will likely need replacing as well.
It's going to be one hell of an inconvenience for sure, and it will likely take a while to fully restore the affected area, but it's not going to destroy human civilization.
They're probably using tons of taxpayer money and as of now it only benefits the military, you can calm down now. On a related note Christ I wish we had a left wing party to vote for.Gearhead mk2 said:
So, not cost effective to prevent the complete destruction of our country's electrical and information infrastructure? Huh, and I thought the Tory government was doing its level best to fucking marry "the City" - that is, the square mile that forms the hub of the country's financial enterprises.
Well, one key issue there is that we wouldn't be able to replace the transformers in anything like a reasonable timescale. In event of such a catastrophe, there's not much scope for recovery in a timescale that would avert panic.Agayek said:
No fridges or freezers, main communications out, water pumps off, no electrical lighting or heating. No electronic payments. No computer coordination of anything from banking to traffic lights. Police radios would probably work until the battery runs flat, so perhaps there'd be some law and order presence initially, but with the majority of people unable to work, access their money, use the money they have or store fresh food you're not going to have a civilised experience.
It's an eventuality that's quite scary to contemplate, really, and one that the ordinary person can't really do much to deal with, save actually getting their apocalypse plan dusted off and stocking up on non-perishable foods.
Very true, there would be quite a bit of unrest about it. Replacing all of the infrastructure would take quite a bit of time, if we're lucky, it'd be fully restored in a year or two, but that's an optimistic estimation at best.Wicky_42 said:
That said, the core of our civilization would survive intact. The average person would be without power yes, and the price of generators would skyrocket, but anyone who owns a generator or a wind turbine or possibly even solar panels, would be just fine. They would have to see a drastic decrease in their power consumption obviously, as it would be prohibitively expensive/unfeasible to generate the normal level of electricity used by the average household, but they'd be able to keep the fridge running at least (assuming it wasn't knocked out in the EMP, the odds of which are somewhere between unlikely and moderately likely).
The biggest problems will be:
1) Current power grid will cease to function for some time
2) Long-range communication will be difficult, since many of the antennas, transmitters and receivers will have been fried.
3) Civil unrest about the lack of conveniences
It's certainly something to prepare for, but it's definitely recoverable and it's most certainly not apocalyptic.
Wouldn't do much. There's enough energy in an EMP on the scale this article discusses that it would go straight through a rubber sheet. And powering them down wouldn't do anything because when you've got a potential difference of somewhere in the neighborhood of 30,000 V, an additional 120 isn't going to do much to effect it either way.Syzygy23 said:
You'd basically need to encase your belongings in a Faraday cage [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage] to prevent them from being fried.
while its nice to see that the UK is prepared i can only hope the US is working on doing the same given their track record perhaps i should just migrate to England 
unless you are hospitalized in an ICU with a tube down your throat or have a pacemaker at the timeAgayek said:
Didn't you hear? Your rib cage is nature's best Faraday Cage!chickenhound said:while its nice to see that the UK is prepared i can only hope the US is working on doing the same given their track record perhaps i should just migrate to England
unless you are hospitalized in an ICU with a tube down your throat or have a pacemaker at the timeAgayek said:
You are pretty much right. Unless there are places where people with pacemakers can flee to in advance of a solar storm or medical equipment was EMP hardened I am saddened to think of the grievous loss of life because we were unprepared in this critical area. Considering the vast loss of life and limb after such an earth shattering event, hospitals will be so screwed because their machines are fried, especially if all patient files were digital.