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Erick San Juan

ADVANCED science and technology has its good and bad effects depending on the purpose of the creator of the project. No matter what the intention is, sometimes accident happen and thus creating unfortunate effects on mankind. Like the EMP – electromagnetic pulse.

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“In 1962, during the depths of the Cold War, the U.S. military exploded a nuclear weapon high above an atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Dubbed ‘Operation Starfish’, this exercise was part of a larger project to evaluate the impact of nuclear explosions in space. The missile, launched from Johnson Island, 900 miles from Hawaii, was armed with a 1.4 megaton warhead, programmed to explode at 240 miles above the earth. It detonated as expected. What was not entirely expected was the magnitude of the resulting electromagnetic pulse (EMP).

The EMP was powerful enough to affect the electric grid in Hawaii, blowing out streetlights, resulted in telephone outages and radio blackouts.

Dr. William Graham was active in the follow-up of the project, working out of the Air Force weapons lab in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After the blast, it was his job to understand the data collected, find out just what had happened in Hawaii, and what the defense implications were of this phenomenon.

According to Dr. Graham, the effects were bizarre and almost entirely unanticipated. One effect was an electromagnetic pulse, but nobody knew it was going to be anywhere nearly as large it proved to be. They had all this data and they didn’t understand very much of it, including the EMP’s that had been observed and the effects produced…all kinds of electrical disturbances were seen over 1,000 kilometers away in Oahu. “The Air Force brought in a bunch of us…and asked us to explain it. With the leadership of scientists from Los Alamos, we figured it out. It was a fairly subtle piece of physics. At that time we were worried it could be used as a precursor attack on the U.S. and suppress our retaliatory capability. Since the effect wasn’t really understood before 1962, our military system hadn’t protected against it up to that point.” (Source: Peter Kelly-Detwiler, forbes.com)

Back in May this year, a report in a Wall Street Journal by missile defense expert Henry Cooper and electromagnetic-pulse (EMP) attack specialist Peter Vincent Fry brought home just how dangerous letting the nuclear genie out of the lamp has become.

An EMP strike, most likely from the detonation of a nuclear weapon in space, would destroy unprotected military and civilian electronics nationwide, blacking out the electric grid and other critical infrastructure for months or years. The staggering human cost of such a catastrophic attack is not difficult to imagine.

What is your president doing to protect you against these inevitable threats? Not enough, of course. They write:
“US President Barack Obama has not acted on the EMP Commission’s draft executive order to protect national infrastructure that is essential to provide for the common defense. Hardening the national electric grid would cost a few billion dollars, a trivial amount compared with the loss of electricity and lives following an EMP attack. The U.S. also should deploy one of its existing transportable radars in the Philippines to help the ground-based interceptors at California’s Vandenberg Air Force defend the country against an attack from the south.

Congress hasn’t been doing much better, but presidential leadership and commitment could perhaps overcome congressional inertia.

Congress also has failed to act on the plans of its own EMP commission to protect the electric grid and other civilian infrastructure that depends on a viable electric grid—such as communications, transportation, banking—that are essential to the economy. In recent years, the GRID Act, the Shield Act, and the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act have gained bipartisan and even unanimous support in the House, yet they died in the Senate.”

Imagine, the US Congress failed to secure their electric grid against a possible electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack and to think they were supposed to have the most advanced technology to do so, aside from the fact that their enemies are growing strong in the same field.

Such scenario is not farfetched here in our country when it comes to our own electric grid. Unfortunately the irony of its name (NGCP) National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, is partly owned by the State Grid Corporation of China and the Board of Directors are dominated by Chinese and Chinoy taipans. So what else is new?

The backbone of any country’s electric supply and other forms of communication are crucial and should be owned and operated by the state because it involves national security. It is about time to rethink and nationalize our public utilities.

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