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- Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!uknet!warwick!dcs.warwick.ac.uk!sunserver1.aston.ac.uk!uhura!evansmp
- From: evansmp@uhura.aston.ac.uk (Mark Evans)
- Newsgroups: sci.electronics
- Subject: Re: Electronic device after nuclear war
- Message-ID: <1992Aug12.170638.3876@aston.ac.uk>
- Date: 12 Aug 92 17:06:38 GMT
- References: <1992Aug6.180853.10464@anasazi.com>
- Sender: usenet@aston.ac.uk (Usenet administrator)
- Organization: Aston University
- Lines: 29
- Nntp-Posting-Host: uhura
-
- john@anasazi.com (John R. Moore) writes:
- : In article <1992Aug4.193044.12259@newstand.syr.edu> amichiel@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Allen J Michielsen) writes:
- : >In @news.acns.nwu.edu> tilden@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Robert Tilden) writes:
- : ]> The scenario I've seen for a pre-emptive EMP strike has a huge
- : ]>(50-100 megaton) device being detonated 50 miles over, say, Nevada. The EMP
- : ]>would be sufficient to damage equipment over the western 1/3 of the U.S.
- : ]
- : ] Let's take a reality check here... A device as you describe, would do the
- : ]damage you describe (in all probability). However, that 1/3 of the U.S. would
- : ]have a much greater problem than TV's not working. The population of that area
- : ]would be very sick, with fatality rate of something like 80% in 3 weeks. While
- : This is nonsense. Such a blast would have NO significant health effects
- : (except for those who were watching the blast and were blinded).
- :
- : Remember, EMP is electromagnetic pulse, not ionizing radiation. It is
- : unlikely to hurt anyone.
-
- Not quite correct, though biological systems are much less sensitive to
- this than electronic ones.
- (Though if you were close enough to the blast to be affected by the EMP then
- you would most likely be with in the area affected directly by the blast)
-
- There are of course secondary risks in the suggested senario,
- for people using telephones, etc. or in fly by wire aircraft.
- --
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- Mark Evans |evansmp@uhura.aston.ac.uk
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