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GEOMAGNETIC STORMS, EMP AND NUCLEAR ARMAGEDDON GEOMAGNETIC STORMS, EMP NUCLEAR ARMAGEDDON AND An extreme geomagnetic disturbance is likely to shut down electricity grids for months or years and trigger nuclear disasters at reactors worldwide. Protective measures could be implemented now to avert the end of civilisation as we know it. here are nearly 450 nuclear reactors in the world, with hundreds more either under construction or in the planning stages. There are 104 of these reactors in the USA and 195 in Europe. Imagine what havoc would be wreaked on our civilisation and the planet's ecosystems if we had not just one or two nuclear meltdowns but 400 or more! How likely is it that our world might experience an event that could ultimately cause hundreds of reactors to fail and melt down at approximately the same time? I venture to say that, unless we take significant protective measures, this apocalyptic scenario is not only possible but probable. Consider the ongoing problems caused by three reactor core meltdowns, explosions and breached containment vessels at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi facility and the subsequent health and environmental issues. Consider the millions of innocent victims who have died or continue to suffer from horrific radiation-related health problems ("Chernobyl AIDS", epidemic cancers, chronic fatigue, etc.) resulting from the Chernobyl reactor explosions, fires and fallout. If just two serious nuclear disasters, spaced 25 years apart, can cause such horrendous environmental catastrophes, how we could ever hope to recover from hundreds of similar nuclear incidents occurring simultaneously across the planet? In the past 152 years, Earth has been struck by two extreme geomagnetic disturbances (GMDs) caused by solar superstorms. If a GMD of such magnitude were to occur today, in all likelihood it would initiate a chain of events leading to catastrophic failures at the vast majority of our world's nuclear reactors, quite similar to the disasters at Chernobyl and Fukushima but multiplied over 100 times. When our Sun ejects a huge mass of highly charged plasma (a coronal mass ejection, or CME) directly towards Earth, colliding with the planet's magnetosphere and outer atmosphere, the result is an extreme geomagnetic disturbance. Since a GMD of such a potentially disruptive magnitude last occurred in May 1921, long before the advent of modern electronics and nuclear power plants, we are for the most part blissfully unaware of this threat and totally unprepared for its consequences. The good news is that there are some relatively affordable processes and protective measures which could be implemented to protect our civilisation from this "end of the world as we know it" scenario. The bad news is that, as of now, even though panels of scientists and engineers have studied the problem and the US Congress has voted a few times on bills related to electromagnetic pulse (EMP) strikes, our leaders have yet to approve and implement a single preventive measure. Most of us believe that something like this could never happen, and, if it could, certainly our "authorities" would do everything in their power to prevent such an apocalypse from ever taking place. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. "How could this happen?" you might ask. "Is this truly possible?" Read and weep, for you will soon know the answer. by Matthew Stein, PE © 2012 Email: info@whentechfails.com Websites: http://www.whentechfails.com http://www.matstein.com Email: info@whentechfails.com Websites: http://www.whentechfails.com http://www.matstein.com NEXUS ¢ 21 FEBRUARY - MARCH 2012 www.nexusmagazine.com