One second after

[USRanger]

It is absolutely frightening how easy it would be to destroy our power grid.  I really believe it will happen.  Just a matter of time.  Russia, China, or some other world power won't do it to us because it will spell doom for their economy if we disappeared, but I think N. Korea or some other bad actor would have no problem doing it to us.

[Ripsnort]

Great book, read it many years ago.

I went from a couple weeks of food for emergency to 3 months of food for a family of 4 "eating well" (or 8 months on rations), ammo, water treatment tablets, water barrels on the rain gutters, a full surgical kit, (Married a nurse, close enough) 2 months of fuel for generator and meds that last 2 months. much more I'm missing...

[FLS]

Good book.  A big solar flare would be sufficient.

[morfiend]

Just move to Canada and build an igloo!

  The snow will shield you from fallout and any EMP,we use cans and string to communicate and our mode of transport is dogsled so all you need is some local roadkill and you will have all the fuel you need for the dogs.


  In our vast frozen wilderness,the bad guys will never find you!

  Besides they have to get past the RCPBP,and that's all but impossible.  Have you ever seen a polar bear in a snow storm?

  The Royal Canuk Polar Bear Patrol,stands on guard for thee!




     

[Serenity]

Without electricity all of this could meltdown ; Do they have back up power protected vs EMP  and keep all this reactors  cool ?  

(Image removed from quote.)

I read this article yesterday in Dailymail, scary stuff;

The 'doomsday' weapon that could wipe out 90% of Americans: Eccentric tech millionaire and presidential candidate John McAfee says country is 'ill prepared' for electromagnetic attacks"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3260935/The-doomsday-weapon-wipe-90-Americans-Eccentric-tech-millionaire-presidential-candidate-John-McAfee-says-country-ill-prepared-electromagnetic-attacks.html

Forgive me, it's been a few years since my class on nuclear reactors, and I don't know if civilian reactors are built in the same way as our Navy reactors, but my understanding is that they're built in such a way that they require power to keep the rods in such a position as to produce heat and power. In other words, as a fail safe, if power is lost, the system automatically shuts down, preventing an issue...

[WaffenVW]

Some reactor designs require cooling even when shut down. Like the Fukushima plant (a General Electric design) where three cores melted down. Even the pools of spent fuel rods need constant cooling as they're still hot, even if they're not hot enough for practical use.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyIBlygNlcc

[WaffenVW]

One point I'd like to make is that if a rogue nuclear power or terrorist organization takes out America with an EMP attack, it won't become the doomsday scenario we've read/watched on TV where 90% of the population is dead after a year. America doesn't exist in a bubble. The attackers would have to hit all continents, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia to make that happen. If only North America is attacked the rest of the world (with a few notable exceptions) would help rebuild the infrastructure and keep most of the people alive. And to prevent something similar from happening to them NATO and Russia and China would hunt down whomever did it and take other 'measures' to prevent it from happening again. Perhaps by making a mushroom cloud of their own here and there.

[NatCigg]

One point I'd like to make is that if a rogue nuclear power or terrorist organization takes out America with an EMP attack, it won't become the doomsday scenario we've read/watched on TV where 90% of the population is dead after a year. America doesn't exist in a bubble. The attackers would have to hit all continents, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia to make that happen. If only North America is attacked the rest of the world (with a few notable exceptions) would help rebuild the infrastructure and keep most of the people alive. And to prevent something similar from happening to them NATO and Russia and China would hunt down whomever did it and take other 'measures' to prevent it from happening again. Perhaps by making a mushroom cloud of their own here and there.

  its not far fetched to think russia would love to throw a few nukes out there.

[WaffenVW]

Or China or France. The French are the only people I know of who have actually officially stated that they will use nuclear weapons in response to a devastating terrorist attack.

[Brooke]

I don't think it would be possible to rebuild the infrastructure quickly.  The problem with the electrical grid is that it requires various large special-built transformers (perhaps among a bunch of other problematic items) that do not have spares in the world and that currently take months to a year to build.

If all vehicles were knocked out, large shipments by sea of trucks would help a lot, as that's what would be needed to get food and water around.  I'm not sure if it would be possible to get food and water to all 320 million people within a couple of months.

It wouldn't cost the US much to guard against it by building some back ups to critical parts and putting in some protective technology at critical points (including at nuclear reactor sites), so it would be very well worthwhile.  It would be small compared to the gigantic amounts of money the US government wastes.

This could happen to any continent as easily as North America.  An attacker can take out a large chunk of any continent with each nuke.  In the book, the US, Russia, Japan, and South Korea are all taken out.

[NatCigg]

I don't think it would be possible to rebuild the infrastructure quickly.  The problem with the electrical grid is that it requires various large special-built transformers (perhaps among a bunch of other problematic items) that do not have spares in the world and that currently take months to a year to build.

If all vehicles were knocked out, large shipments by sea of trucks would help a lot, as that's what would be needed to get food and water around.  I'm not sure if it would be possible to get food and water to all 320 million people within a couple of months.

It wouldn't cost the US much to guard against it by building some back ups to critical parts and putting in some protective technology at critical points (including at nuclear reactor sites), so it would be very well worthwhile.  It would be small compared to the gigantic amounts of money the US government wastes.

This could happen to any continent as easily as North America.  An attacker can take out a large chunk of any continent with each nuke.  In the book, the US, Russia, Japan, and South Korea are all taken out.

you guys who prep.  having some dried seeds would be a good thing to have on hand.  a tip from a former biology student.  "if not able to get meat you must mix a grass and legume to get the protein for human growth.  grass would be wheat and corn, legume would be beans and peas"  that is your psa for the day 

[Bodhi]

WaffenVW,
I don't believe you've taken the time to actually consider the size and complexity of the US Infrastructure.  If (I don't believe it will happen) a coordinated EMP attack on the US were to occur, the every aspect of modern life that we know of is shut down.  Within a week, 95% of most people will be out of food.  When that happens, lawlessness and the associated chaos of joe six-pack trying to secure food for his 2.2 kids will add to the chaos of those that thrive on it.  Law Enforcement will be overwhelmed and the inevitable call-in of the US Military will not be able to control the situation. 

Even if the rest of the countries decided to start helping immediately, it would be months before any meaningful supply could happen.  Logistics dictate that response time.  In that time, a major portion of the population will die.  Either to starvation or the inevitable violence, many millions will die.  As this death occurs, disease will become rampant.  That will only hamper efforts.

[Bodhi]

I forgot to add this.  Sit and think about a coordinated EMP attack.  Everything non-shielded is dead.  Think of how you would move logistics around the country....?  Not going to be done easily by road.  They are clogged with dead vehicles.  What about by rail?  Not going to happen, hundreds of dead trains.  Going to bring in hundreds of thousands of trucks?  Awesome, how do you clear the roads?  What about the airports?  They are going to be clogged with dead aircraft and logistics.

It's simply not possible to move stuff around after an event of this magnitude.

[Bodhi]

Nattcig,
The vast majority of the population would not live long enough to worry about growing anything in this scenario.

[WaffenVW]

Yeah, that's the reason I said "most people", not "all people". Many would perish in the chaos. Perhaps we'd get to actually witness that scene from Jericho where Chinese transport planes were dropping food and water purifying kits with little notes on them saying "don't hurt each other".