Transcript Effects of Nuclear Weapons - Teaching Nonproliferation

Effects of Nuclear Weapons
Hiroshima
• https://youtu.be/gwkyPvlWPMO
kilotons
• kilotons of dynamite equivalent are the units
used to measure the blast effects of a nuclear
weapon.
• 1 kiloton is 1000 tons or 2,000,000 lbs
What FERC says about EMP
• http://www.ferc.gov
• Go to FERC and put EMP into search machine
Testimony of Joseph McClelland Director, Office of Energy Infrastructure
Security Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Before the Committee on
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
United States Senate
July 22, 2015
• In 2001, Congress established a commission to assess and report on
the threat from EMP.
• In 2004 and again in 2008, the commission issued reports on these
threats.
• One of the key findings in the reports was that a single EMP attack
could seriously degrade or shut down a large part of the electric
power grid.
• Depending upon the attack, significant parts of the electric
infrastructure could be “out of service for periods measured in
months to a year or more.”
• It is important to note that effective mitigation against solar
geomagnetic disturbances and non- nuclear EMP weaponry can
also provide an effective mitigation against the impacts of a highaltitude nuclear detonation.
• To provide a significantly more agile and focused approach
to these growing cyber and physical security threats, the
Commission established the Office of Energy Infrastructure
Security – or OEIS – in late 2012.
• Its mission is to provide leadership, expertise and
assistance to the Commission, other federal and state
agencies and jurisdictional entities in identifying,
communicating and seeking comprehensive solutions to
significant potential cyber and physical security risks to the
energy infrastructure under the Commission’s jurisdiction.
• This includes threats from geomagnetic disturbances
(GMDs) and electromagnetic pulses (EMPs). OEIS also
assists in the identification of key energy infrastructure
facilities for the application of best practices. OEIS has been
able to recruit and develop deep subject matter expertise
to collaboratively perform its task.
The bureaucracy is kind of alarming
actually
• Energy.gov Office of Electricity Delivery and
Energy Reliability
• Infrastructure Security and Energy Restoration
(ISER)
• http://energy.gov/oe/mission/infrastructuresecurity-and-energy-restoration-iser
• FERC Office of Energy Infrastructure Security
(OEIS)
http://www.ferc.gov/about/offices/oeis.asp
On a more positive note:
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“Power companies to create a stockpile of transformers to counter attacks or natural disasters,”
Peter Behr E&E reporter
EnergyWire: Friday June 12, 2015
An unpredictable solar storm could hit Earth with only a day's warning and, if it knocked out a
large number of transformers, could cause economic damages of more than $2 trillion and cause
disruptions lasting up to two years, according to a Lloyd's of London report.
http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060020138
H.R. 2244
Introduced in House (05/08/2015)
This bill requires the Department of Energy (DOE), acting through the Office of Electricity Delivery
and Energy Reliability, to submit to Congress a plan to establish a Strategic Transformer Reserve
for the storage, in strategically located facilities, of spare large power transformers in sufficient
numbers to temporarily replace critically damaged large power transformers.
DOE may not establish a Strategic Transformer Reserve until Congress has approved the plan.
Effects of Nuclear Weapons
• https://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/www/effect
s/ 644 pages
• Prepared and published by the United States
Department of Defense and the Energy
Research and Development Administration
Effects of Nuclear Weapons
• http://www.atomicarchive.com/Effects/
• Detailed explanations of
– Thermal effects
– Blast effects
– Radiation effects
– Long-Term effects
Choose your target and yield
http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/
New York City example
• http://www.atomicarchive.com/Example/Exa
mple1.shtml
Medical Consequences of Nuclear War
• The Nobel Peace Prize 1985 International
Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
IPPNW History
• The International Physicians for the Prevention of
Nuclear War (IPPNW) is a federation of national
groups dedicated to mobilizing the influence of the
medical profession against the threat of nuclear
weapons.
• Currently, there are IPPNW affiliated groups in 40
IPPNW
• A long-standing professional association between
two leading cardiologists, Dr. Bernard Lown of the
Harvard School of Public Health, and Dr. Yevgeny
Chazov of the USSR Cardiological Institute, was
the impetus for the formation of IPPNW.
• An exchange of letters between the two led to an
extraordinary meeting of six Soviet and American
physicians in Geneva in December of 1980. That
meeting provided the four point consensus that
has been the basis of IPPNW activity since then.
IPPNW
• 1. That IPPNW would restrict its focus to nuclear war;
• 2. That IPPNW physicians would work to prevent nuclear
war as a consequence of their professional commitments to
protect life and preserve health;
• 3. That IPPNW would involve physicians from both east and
west and would seek to circulate the same factual
information about nuclear war throughout the world;
• 4. That although IPPNW might advocate certain steps to
prevent nuclear war, the organization would not take a
position on specific policies of any government.
The medical, environmental, and
humanitarian consequences of nuclear
war
• https://youtu.be/Ug-DJtvHFE0
EMP Attack on US Would Be
‘Catastrophic’ Congress Told
An Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) attack on the United States,
whether manmade or naturally occurring, could result in the
deaths of nine out of ten Americans through starvation,
disease and the collapse of modern society,
warned Dr. Vincent Peter Pry, a member of the
congressional EMP Commission and executive director of
the Task Force on National and Homeland Security.
• http://www.hstoday.us/briefings/daily-newsanalysis/single-article/emp-attack-on-us-would-becatastrophic-congresstold/1b5e33a26545ac5ebf9398f00064dc0a.html
ElectroMagnetic Pulse (EMP)
• http://fas.org/nuke/intro/nuke/emp.htm
• In July 1962, a high-altitude nuclear test
dubbed Operation Starfish, conducted 400
kilometers above Johnson Island in the Pacific
Ocean, first raised widespread concerns over
electromagnetic pulses.
• During the course of the test, the recording
instruments continually malfunctioned and
affected electrical equipment more than 1,400
kilometers away in Hawaii.
• The root cause of the problem?
• An electromagnetic pulse. This discovery led the
U.S. military to harden many of the country’s
strategic defense systems, such as missile silos,
against EMP effects, but little was done to
implement measures to protect civilian
infrastructure.
• That practice has remained virtually unchanged
despite the ever-increasing proliferation of
nuclear weapons and ever-increasing U.S. military
and civilian dependence on electricity-based
infrastructure.
• An EMP has three main components:
• (1) An electromagnetic shock disrupts
electronics, such as communication systems;
• (2) an effect similar to lightning rapidly
follows and compounds the first component;
and
• (3) the pulse flows through electricity
transmission lines, overloading and damaging
transmission distribution centers, fuses, and
power lines.
H.R.2417
• https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/h
r2417/text
• 6/18/2013--Introduced.
• Secure High-voltage Infrastructure for Electricity
from Lethal Damage Act or SHIELD Act
• Amends the Federal Power Act to authorize the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC),
with or without notice, hearing, or report, to
order emergency measures to protect the
reliability of either the bulk-power system or the
defense critical electric infrastructure whenever
the President issues a written directive or
determination identifying an imminent grid
security threat.
• Directs FERC to consult with governmental
authorities in Canada, Mexico, and the Electric
Reliability Organization (ERO) regarding
implementation of emergency measures.
• Prescribes: (1) implementation procedures; and
(2) related cost recovery measures affecting
owners, operators, and users of either the bulkpower system or the defense critical electric
infrastructure.
• Directs FERC to require any owner, user, or
operator of the domestic bulk-power system to
implement measures to protect the system
against specified vulnerabilities.
• Requires FERC to issue an order directing ERO
to submit for approval, within 30 days, a
reliability standard requiring implementation,
by any owner, operator, or user of the bulkpower system in the United States, of
measures to protect the bulk-power system
against an identified grid security vulnerability
(including a protection plan with automated
hardware-based solutions).
• Directs FERC also to order the ERO to submit
reliability standards to: (1) protect the bulkpower system from a reasonably foreseeable
geomagnetic storm event or electromagnetic
pulse event (EMP); and (2) require entities
that own or operate large transformers to
ensure their adequate availability to restore
promptly the reliable operation of the bulkpower system in the event of destruction or
disability as a result of attack or a
geomagnetic storm or EMP.
• Directs the Secretary of Energy to establish a
program to: (1) develop technical expertise in
the protection of electric energy systems
against either geomagnetic storms or
malicious acts using electronic
communications or electromagnetic weapons;
and (2) share it with owners, operators, or
users of systems for the generation,
transmission, or distribution of electric energy
located in the United States and with state
commissions. Library of Congress Summary
• https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/h
r2417/summary