EMP Protection of Civilian Critical Infrastructure: Opinions, Problems, Strategy, Solutions
by Dr. Vladimir Gurevich
Free ebook download: EMP Protection of Civilian Critical Infrastructure: Opinions, Problems, Strategy, Solutions by Dr. Vladimir Gurevich, legally licensed and available in PDF format.
This free ebook analyses the reasons why critical civilian infrastructure has been unprotected for more than 50 years, proposes new protection strategies and methods.
The problem of the destructive effects of High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP or EMP) on electronic and electrical equipment has been well known for more than 50 years. All military equipment and critical equipment of special governmental services are reliably protected from such influences. There are many companies on the market that manufactures numerous EMP protection means that meet the requirements of military standards. It would seem that in such a situation, critical civilian infrastructure facilities (electrical power systems, water supply systems, communications, large medical centers, banks, etc.) should also be protected against EMP. But it turns out that this is not the case! Nowhere in the world are critical civilian infrastructure still protected from such impacts! Why?
The main reason is an attempt to use well-known military strategies, methods and protection means for protecting civilian infrastructure.
This ebook analyses the reasons why critical civilian infrastructure has been unprotected for more than 50 years, proposes new protection strategies and methods, as well as new protections means designed especially for the civilian sector. Ideal for managers and technical staff of civil infrastructure facilities, specialists in the field of EMP, university teachers, students and readers with ab interest in EMP.
Excerpt:
The ability of the powerful electromagnetic pulse, generated upon the HEMP to destroy all electronics, has been known to nuclear physicists since the first nuclear explosion was performed in 1945 on the Alamogordo range, New Mexico (project “Trinity”). Upon the explosion, all apparatus that was meant to monitor the explosion parameters became inoperative. Upon all further test explosions performed in all countries, that electromagnetic pulse was registered precisely and was followed with the analysis and study of the parameters.
Beginning in the 1970s (50 years ago), that subject has been unclassified. At that time, dozens of Western scientific and technical reports, prepared by numerous military and civilian organizations (working at the military request), were devoted to different aspects of HEMP impact on electrical equipment and electronics. Since then, the electromagnetic pulse had been officially recognized as one of the damage effects of nuclear weapons, along with the detonation wave, the temperature, the light and the radioactive emission. At the same time, the first recommendations for the protection of electronic and electrical equipment from HEMP appeared, which, of course, were primarily intended for military equipment].
Well, what about civilian critical infrastructure protection? Today, at least a hundred organizations around the world are dealing with this problem (there are more than 50 of them in the United States only), dozens of detailed reports have been published on this topic, which are freely available on the Internet [3], as well as hundreds of articles and books. Dozens of standards (civilian and military) describe how to protect critical infrastructure equipment against НEMP.
But if everything is so good, then why is critical civilian infrastructure still unprotected anywhere in the world? Why, after 50 years of careful study of the problem and hundreds of recommendations, is the Department of Homeland Security asking Congress for tens of millions of dollars to "improve understanding"?
