[ RadSafe ] Interesting article: EMP: America's Achilloes' Heel

[A Karam]

There is an entire chapter on EMP in Glasstone and Dolan's book, The
Effects of Nuclear Weapons (chapter 11).  In this reference, the authors
discuss where the EMP comes from and how it causes damage.  The short
version is that (as of 1977, when the book was written) the EMP will
likely affect only objects in the line-of-sight to the weapon.  For a
surface burst, this might be only a few miles.  At an altitude of 200
miles, the authors point out that line-of-sight includes the entire
continental US.

Some of you might remember the short-lived TV series Dark Angel - the
show's back story was that terrorists set off a nuclear weapon and the
resulting EMP damage ruined the economy and turned the US into
effectively a 3rd-world country.

Andy