Ukraine

SamAndreas said
I would NOT expect those sources to be correct.

Yes EMP pulses can be created and do exist. A lighting bolt is the best natural example of that. Years ago I do remember unshielded electronics failing momentarily whenever a lighting pulse was too close.

I even remember an old (50's) GMC truck I was driving having it's engine knocked out by a bolt that hit a tree right beside the truck as I was going past.

The engine quit and the lights went out, it coasted to a stop. I turned off the light switch and then turned off the engine ignition as well. Allowed it to sit for a bit for the battery to regroup, and then restarted everything, and went on my way.

The thing is it's been years since I've seen anything even somewhat new that does not have sufficient shielding to manage any EMP pulses a nuclear bomb going off in the high atmosphere will produce.

BTW, 24 years ago I was about this the same way I am now over that Y2K bug thing I was expected to believe in.

For years about that I was like "nah" it will be minor thing, if a thing at all.

I was on call that Y2K day. Got one minor Y2K kind of call which came my way. A printer at a video store which was in a supermarket I was working in lost their ability to use their printer. I was there at the store working on a large refrigeration unit, and I was asked to look also at that video store printer while I was there because it being down was keeping them from doing business.

I went there and turned off the power to the whole computer system and then turned it back on. That fixed it. I didn't even mention that """repair""" on my paperwork.

I can't find any sources that say its all BS. Unlike the nuclear winter theory which has many detractors.

Yes small electronics are actually less of a risk (assuming they arent connected from the grid) Because the length of the conductors is much smaller And of course the military has hardened everything for a long time.

But for the civillian power grid, those conductors are huge, exposed and mostly unshielded . And they're all connected. Well except for Texas. Since it is all connected, shielding over the distances may not be practical. If part of the grid gets hit, the charge is going go flow everywhere.

Lightning strikes are very rare and brief - lasting ms, despite delivery millions of volts the power transfer is not that large. Whereas the ionization of the trosophere could persist for some time, delivering hundreds/thousands of volts over an extended period. This could be enough to melt/blow transformers.

Operation Starfish in 1962 did produce measurable effects in Hawaii some hundreds of miles away, blowing out street lamps, albeit not a complete grid loss. Shortly after, they banned testing in the upper atmosphere, and banned nuclear weapons in space. So either there isn't anything practical they can do to stop it, and are relying on a treaty and the goodwill of the other side, or they have figured out its mostly baloney.