Sarah Seguin and Robert J. Marks discuss what might happen if someone tried to attack the United States using an EMP. What kinds of groups might use EMPs for terrorism? Are steps being taken to protect the country’s power grid?

Show Notes

• 00:13 | 1989 Solar Storm
• 01:31 | HEMP Disruption
• 04:34 | Introducing Sarah Seguin
• 05:39 | The United States’ Vulnerability to EMPs
• 10:01 | Protection against EMPs
• 10:28 | The Physics of an EMP Attack
• 12:45 | Terrorism
• 14:52 | Infrastructure Improvements

Additional Resources

• “Using our first-order cost model, we estimate the “overnight cost” of EMP protecting critical elements of U.S. bulk electric system to be on the order of $255 billion“
• National Coordinating Center for Communications (NCC) Report (2019)
• A small EMP device can be built for a few thousand dollars
• James Concha, “China Has ‘First-Strike’ Capability To Melt U.S. Power Grid With Electromagnetic Pulse Weapon” Forbes, June 2021 
• Adam Hadhazy, “Scary 13th: 20 Years Ago, Earth Was Blasted with a Massive Plume of Solar Plasma” Scientific American, 2009
• Richard Hollingham, “The Cold War nuke that fried satellites” BBC, 2015
• Dr. Seguin’s software company ThirdIron.com