From Bill Ryan -- the Ultimate Hypothesis

[bearcow]

There is a possibility that there will be a false flag attack at the Olympics that will start a large scale war.

There is a possibility CERN will rip a hole in the dimensions allowing some nasty astral entities to wreak havoc in the physical world

There is a possibility a military made virus will be unleashed and cut off all higher brain function in those not vaccinated against it.

There is a possibility the economic stability of the world at large will go down the tubes, starting wars and food shortages.

And yes, there is a possibility that solar activity could wipe out the electrical grid, causing great hardship.

the truth is, none of us know what, if any of these scenarios will occur, but what the average person can do about any of this, besides being aware is this:

But I do have a stock of solar-rechargable batteries, a ham radio, EMP bags, ferrite surge suppressors (very cheap and easy to get, btw), and a bunch of other stuff that would be useful if the grid went down or the power went off for a while.

None of this cost a lot of money, and it'll last pretty much forever. It's just like having a spare tire in your car, and some jump leads, and a working jack, and an extra couple of cans of gas and some tools. Throw in a couple of warm blankets and a case of bottled water and some dried fruit and nuts, and that's simply sensible for any long trip -- in Romania, or on the Alaska Highway.

like the boy scouts say, "be prepared"

with respect, this is all the average person can do.

[Houman]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
-------

Folks, I rest my case. Listen up. We're being told.

It's now coming at us thick and fast, more each month, in the mainstream media.

Again: what I was informed in writing, by a credible source with a TS clearance -- a gifted physicist whose name most in the alternative media would know, who also told me who he now worked for and reported to -- is that the current expectation was for an 1859-scale event to hit us sometime in the December-January timeframe. I first heard about this from him in October 2007 (believe it or not) -- and then again in March of this year.

He joked that I should "get a lot of sunblock, or better still, go underground" -- and then, more seriously, in response to my questions, said that it was not known to what degree the grid and electronic components would be affected worldwide, but that the scale of the event was expected to exceed the 1859 Carrington Event.. [My emphasis]

As I wrote earlier in this thread, he did not say how this detailed forecast was known to the insiders. He apologized for not being able to say more -- implying clearly that he knew more but was constrained by his national security responsibility.

I've been watching this play out, and gathering information (I have quite a lot now). I have no way of verifying any of this, but it looks more and more likely that this is a real situation that could be a very major one. For those of you who have missed it, please read carefully this exchange I had in April 2009 -- which alerted me to the seriousness of an approaching problem that had a lot of engineers very worried.

http://projectcamelot.org/electrical_engineer.html

http://www.naturalnews.com/033564_so...er_plants.html

[Jeffrey]

Posted by bearcow (here)
There is a possibility that there will be a false flag attack at the Olympics that will start a large scale war.

There is a possibility CERN will rip a hole in the dimensions allowing some nasty astral entities to wreak havoc in the physical world

There is a possibility a military made virus will be unleashed and cut off all higher brain function in those not vaccinated against it.

There is a possibility the economic stability of the world at large will go down the tubes, starting wars and food shortages.

And yes, there is a possibility that solar activity could wipe out the electrical grid, causing great hardship.

the truth is, none of us know what, if any of these scenarios will occur, but what the average person can do about any of this, besides being aware is this:

But I do have a stock of solar-rechargable batteries, a ham radio, EMP bags, ferrite surge suppressors (very cheap and easy to get, btw), and a bunch of other stuff that would be useful if the grid went down or the power went off for a while.

None of this cost a lot of money, and it'll last pretty much forever. It's just like having a spare tire in your car, and some jump leads, and a working jack, and an extra couple of cans of gas and some tools. Throw in a couple of warm blankets and a case of bottled water and some dried fruit and nuts, and that's simply sensible for any long trip -- in Romania, or on the Alaska Highway.

like the boy scouts say, "be prepared"

with respect, this is all the average person can do.

I second that.

Don't be scared, be prepared.

[Maunagarjana]

Posted by Magnus (here)
Those insiders who presumably, somehow know that this is coming at us, still seems to find it important to drip-feed the public about it. Isn't that rather strange when you consider an event of this magnitude, when it in general would be out of hand anyway. Why do the insiders care one might ask. It would be plausible to suspect that there is another element involved in this equation, an element that pushes the insiders to gradually leak the info. You may think of me as a silly, but Hidden Hand talked about Negative vs Positive graduation from 3:rd dimension, an energetic battle where it, as he said, was of great interest for the negative side to achieve critical mass among the population of earth. This would then allow the Luciferians to graduate into the negative eight dimension.

If this idea has any merit, it would all be about maximising fear and negativity as hard and long as possible to tip the balance in favour of the Luciferians before the "Great harvest of souls" occur. This would be a crucial event in the endgame between, if you like, good and evil.

If this event strike with the force of extinction, direct or indirect, then we can just relax because we won't need our bodies after that anyway.

I don't endorse or promote any specific source or set of information, but rather exploring the possibilities.

It's interesting how information sometimes interlock, even though it generally hasn't been acknowledged as credible.

At this point I think "Hidden Hand" was a hoax, which I had initially suspected. David Wilcock has said he has spoken with the person who did the hoax, who he says is a fan of his site. You said you don't endorse or promote it, so I'm not attacking you, just pointing that out.

[Lazlo]

A little perspective on transformers.

Transformers are everything. Ohm's law says that Power = Voltage * Current. Voltage = Current * Resistance. In layman's terms, in order to transmit a lot of power through a relatively small cable, you need to do it at a high voltage so that you don't cook the wires. The transformer steps the transmission voltage down to a useable level at the local distribution stage, and then other transformers get it down to a voltage that can be used in your home or business.

Large transformers that are used in substations are each unique and are built by hand. There are a limited number of factories that can make them, anywhere on the planet. The lead time, if you need to order one today, is about a year. One year if everything is going right: the copper is being mined and refined, processed into sheets, delivered, cut, formed and wrapped into the transformer core. Then you need the refined oils to act as the insulator/coolant. The body has to be welded together after the "guts" are assembled, etc, etc, etc...

The life expectancy of a transformer is about 40 years. The AVERAGE age of a transformer in the US is about 43 years. That's right, on average, our key infrastructure is past its' expected useful life.

What happens during a severe solar event is that the lines act as big antennas and induce DC into the transformers, and they essentially melt.

I lost a "small" transformer a couple of years ago. By small I am referring to a 1MVA unit that is about the size of what you would use for a big box store, small manufacturing facility, small hospital, that sort of thing. a 1MVA unit weighs about 7,000 pounds and is filled with about 500 gallons of oil. It took me 2 1/2 months to get a replacement, and I already had a spare on order for 3 months before I asked the manufacturer to expedite. Same thing happened again earlier this year and I had to wait 5 months for delivery.

In 1859, during the Carrington Event, there wasn't an infrastructure to speak of, and people didn't depend on it. The vast majority of humans still produced at least some of their own food. If you shut off the power to LA today and tell people that it won't be back on, you have a Mad Max scenario forming in under three days. Heck, LA might not even be that bad in the long run considering the farming that goes on in the central and imperial valleys. Phoenix or Las Vegas, on the other hand....

There's a reason why the governement takes this stuff seriously, setting aside any speculation about future events. The blackout in San Diego last fall was caused by a technician pushing the wrong button in a substation while performing routine maintenance. That should give you an idea of just how fragile things are.

[Jeffrey]

Mausumi Dikpati: A Storm is Coming

March 10, 2006: It's official: Solar minimum has arrived. Sunspots have all but vanished. Solar flares are nonexistent. The sun is utterly quiet.

Like the quiet before a storm.

This week researchers announced that a storm is coming--the most intense solar maximum in fifty years. The prediction comes from a team led by Mausumi Dikpati of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). "The next sunspot cycle will be 30% to 50% stronger than the previous one," she says. If correct, the years ahead could produce a burst of solar activity second only to the historic Solar Max of 1958.

...

Dikpati's prediction is unprecedented. In nearly-two centuries since the 11-year sunspot cycle was discovered, scientists have struggled to predict the size of future maxima—and failed. Solar maxima can be intense, as in 1958, or barely detectable, as in 1805, obeying no obvious pattern.

The key to the mystery, Dikpati realized years ago, is a conveyor belt on the sun.

...

The sun's conveyor belt is a current, not of water, but of electrically-conducting gas. It flows in a loop from the sun's equator to the poles and back again. Just as the Great Ocean Conveyor Belt controls weather on Earth, this solar conveyor belt controls weather on the sun. Specifically, it controls the sunspot cycle.

Solar physicist David Hathaway of the National Space Science & Technology Center (NSSTC) explains: "First, remember what sunspots are--tangled knots of magnetism generated by the sun's inner dynamo. A typical sunspot exists for just a few weeks. Then it decays, leaving behind a 'corpse' of weak magnetic fields."

Enter the conveyor belt.



"The top of the conveyor belt skims the surface of the sun, sweeping up the magnetic fields of old, dead sunspots. The 'corpses' are dragged down at the poles to a depth of 200,000 km where the sun's magnetic dynamo can amplify them. Once the corpses (magnetic knots) are reincarnated (amplified), they become buoyant and float back to the surface." Presto—new sunspots!

All this happens with massive slowness. "It takes about 40 years for the belt to complete one loop," says Hathaway. The speed varies "anywhere from a 50-year pace (slow) to a 30-year pace (fast)."

When the belt is turning "fast," it means that lots of magnetic fields are being swept up, and that a future sunspot cycle is going to be intense. This is a basis for forecasting: "The belt was turning fast in 1986-1996," says Hathaway. "Old magnetic fields swept up then should re-appear as big sunspots in 2010-2011."

Like most experts in the field, Hathaway has confidence in the conveyor belt model and agrees with Dikpati that the next solar maximum should be a doozy. But he disagrees with one point. Dikpati's forecast puts Solar Max at 2012. Hathaway believes it will arrive sooner, in 2010 or 2011.

"History shows that big sunspot cycles 'ramp up' faster than small ones," he says. "I expect to see the first sunspots of the next cycle appear in late 2006 or 2007—and Solar Max to be underway by 2010 or 2011."

Who's right? Time will tell. Either way, a storm is coming.

Excerpts from: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news..._stormwarning/

More information on the Predictive Flux-transport Dynamo Model (say that 5 times fast):

http://www.space.com/2124-model-pred...ar-storms.html

[Houman]

http://www.pakalertpress.com/2012/07...pounds-planet/

"A grim report prepared by the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) for President Putin on the catastrophic flooding in the ‎Krasnodar region that has killed at least 144 people warns that our world is fast approaching what is termed as a “Chizhevsky Super Event” due to the rapidly growing number of sunspots that continue to hurl M and X Class Flares towards Earth causing continued and massive global weather chaos."

[Jeffrey]

Posted by Houman (here)
http://www.pakalertpress.com/2012/07...pounds-planet/

"A grim report prepared by the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) for President Putin on the catastrophic flooding in the ‎Krasnodar region that has killed at least 144 people warns that our world is fast approaching what is termed as a “Chizhevsky Super Event” due to the rapidly growing number of sunspots that continue to hurl M and X Class Flares towards Earth causing continued and massive global weather chaos."

I'm looking more at this one, and I noticed a lot of the information links back to Sorcha Faal. Still digging.

[Maunagarjana]

Posted by Houman (here)
http://www.naturalnews.com/033564_so...er_plants.html

I would really like to know if what is discussed in that article is really possible. This is the giant radioactive mastodon in the room. Could they have backup power on reactor cooling systems that we have no idea about? Massive power outage would be bad enough, but a slew of Fukushimas across the globe....I don't even want to think of it. I will have to assume that they have prepared for this until proven otherwise.

[Houman]

Posted by Maunagarjana (here)

Posted by Houman (here)
http://www.naturalnews.com/033564_so...er_plants.html

I would really like to know if what is discussed in that article is really possible. This is the giant radioactive mastodon in the room. Could they have backup power on reactor cooling systems that we have no idea about? Massive power outage would be bad enough, but a slew of Fukushimas across the globe....I don't even want to think of it. I will have to assume that they have prepared for this until proven otherwise.

nope, only 2 weeks of diesel backup power for cooling systems...

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by Maunagarjana (here)

Posted by Houman (here)
http://naturalnews.com/033564_solar_...er_plants.html

I would really like to know if what is discussed in that article is really possible. This is the giant radioactive mastodon in the room. Could they have backup power on reactor cooling systems that we have no idea about? Massive power outage would be bad enough, but a slew of Fukushimas across the globe....I don't even want to think of it. I will have to assume that they have prepared for this until proven otherwise.

It's real. Here's another reference:

http://truth-out.org/news/item/7301-...ear-armageddon

Four Hundred Chernobyls:
Solar Flares, Electromagnetic Pulses and Nuclear Armageddon

(must read...)

Also archived as a PDF, here:

http://projectavalon.net/resources/S...thew_Stein.pdf

Posted by Houman (here)

Posted by Maunagarjana (here)
I don't even want to think of it. I will have to assume that they have prepared for this until proven otherwise.

nope, only 2 weeks of diesel backup power for cooling systems...

Houman is correct.

[Magnus]

Posted by Maunagarjana (here)
At this point I think "Hidden Hand" was a hoax, which I had initially suspected. David Wilcock has said he has spoken with the person who did the hoax, who he says is a fan of his site. You said you don't endorse or promote it, so I'm not attacking you, just pointing that out.

Thanks, i'm aware, and it's a good thing that you brought it up, for the sake of clarity. I should have done it myself, i apologize!

Even if it's true that HH was a hoax, his claims are still as good as many whistleblowers.
Regarding Wilcock, i admit that he has a sharp mind and are very knowledgable, but in my opinion he has in many ways lost touch with reality. It would do him good to filter his ideas through someone like Bill.

[Jeffrey]

Post-2012 Earth Changes
A Global Climate Change Remote-Viewing Study of Multiple Realities, Timelines, and Events

By Courtney Brown

Introduction: We at The Farsight Institute are currently engaged in a fascinating study using remote viewing to study climate and planetary change between the years 2008 and 2013. The initial results appear dramatic on a global scale, and our research does indeed suggest that major global change is a possibility between now and 2013. However, web site visitors are reminded that this is research, not certitude. Remember what Albert Einstein once said, "If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?" Web site visitors are encouraged to examine all of our results carefully, and learn with us as we complete this experiment in mid-2013. We will not fully understand these remote-viewing data until the experiment is completed at that time.

How we obtain these results is a bit complicated, but it is worth the effort to understand our methods. The actual types of global change is discussed in the second part of the video presentation below, but the first part of this presentation is absolutely essential to understand how these results were obtained. Web site visitors should watch both parts of the video presentation. This presentation was given during the 29th Annual Meeting of the Society for Scientific Exploration in Boulder, Colorado in June 2010.

This is the most carefully collected set of professional-grade remote-viewing data involving this time span that currently exists. This experiment is potentially one of the most significant experiments ever attempted using remote viewing as a data-collection platform.

Initial Results:

This project describes change between the years 2008 and 2013 across nine geographical locations with a global spread. The locations are:

1.Vaitupu, Tuvalu
2.Fort Jesus, Mombasa Kenya
3.Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia
4.Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
5.United States Congress Building, Washington, D.C.
6.Malé International Airport, Malé, Maldives
7.KITV Building, Honolulu, Hawaii
8.The Vehicle Assembly Building at Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center, Merritt Island, Florida
9.Key West, Florida

In general, these remote-viewing data suggest the following types of physical changes across many of the above geographical locations by mid-2013:

1.Impacts from what appear to be large meteors leading to tsunamis and possible volcanism
2.Extensive and forceful flooding of coastal areas
3.Excessive solar radiation
4.Storms and other severe weather

In terms of the effects of these changes on humans, these data also suggest:

1.Massive self-organized relocation from coastal areas (refugees)
2.The breakdown of rescue or other notable governmental functioning
3.The breakdown of the food supply system
4.The breakdown of the vehicular transport system
5.Extensive loss of buildings near coasts

Oddly, these results largely parallel recent warnings being issued by NASA relating to the dangers of severe solar storms anticipated around the years 2012 and 2013 that would threaten the global long-term use of electricity. NASA is not currently explaining exactly why these unprecedented and severe storms are anticipated, but the warnings themselves could not be more clear. Meteor impacts are not included in the current set of NASA warnings.

For this project, all targets are assigned two timelines for the date 1 June 2013. This allows us to attempt to use remote viewing to describe alternative futures by specifying characteristics of future timelines. Web site visitors who are not familiar with our research into multiple realities might want to view this introductory video presentation on the subject.

The two 2013 timelines examined in this study are -

Timeline A: 1 June 2013, 12 noon target local time, following the timeline in which the leadership of the mainstream global scientific establishment continues to ignore or deny (1) the reality of the remote-viewing phenomenon, and (2) the existence of life not originating from Earth.

Timeline B: 1 June 2013, 12 noon target local time, following the timeline in which by the end of 2009 leaders of the mainstream global scientific establishment publicly recognize (1) the reality of the remote-viewing phenomenon, and (2) the existence of life not originating from Earth.

The results of this study do suggest that there is a difference between the two timelines. These data suggest that the impact of planetary change is less severe for Timeline B as compared with Timeline A. This suggests that having the mainstream scientific community openly acknowledge the reality of remote viewing and life (even microbial) not originating on Earth may help ameliorate the impact of severe planetary change, perhaps by giving people a greater chance to prepare for the changes. The Key West target was added late in the study to explore a timeline in which the scientific community recognizes the reality of remote viewing and the existence of extraterrestrial life by 2011.

Here are links to some of the data and analyses for the current project.

•Remote-viewing sessions for all targets and all dates
•Remote-viewing "Clarity Scores" for the 2008 targets, plus links to session evaluations
•The targets for this study

Speculation

Predicting any event on a single timeline may involve (1) using remote viewing to examine alternate timelines to check for unusual events, and (2) looking for clues in a given present to see if anything that is currently happening suggests that the future events perceived in the alternate timelines might be possible for our most likely future. Thus, if the above results are indeed correct for the two specified timelines (Timelines A and B), then it is natural to ask if the results are relevant for our most likely future timeline. Since it seems likely that major governments would be aware in advance of most near term global threats, then it also seems likely that they would take some actions that would reflect their anticipation of those events. These actions would likely not be explained to the masses to avoid panic. Below is a list of largely anomalous governmental actions that may indicate an awareness of a near term global threat that is suggested by these remote-viewing data. Again, these are only speculations, none of which "prove" anything. But considered collectively, they are exceptionally odd.

1.The U.S. Space Shuttle will launch its last mission in mid-2011. At that time, NASA is entirely abandoning its government-funded manned spaceflight program. Given the investment that the U.S. has made in launching humans into space since the 1960s, this is odd, especially since private efforts to launch humans into space are years away, and currently unproven. It is as if the government does not anticipate being able to launch humans into space in the near future for reasons not currently stated.

2.The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is being sealed in 2011. This will allow the world to restart agriculture given a global catastrophe. The United Nations formally inspected the facility, which might seem odd for a Norwegian project. The timing of this project seems like a strange coincidence.

3.U.S. and global debt. It is as if various governments are not expecting to have to pay back their debts, perhaps anticipating a global economic reset due to reasons not currently stated.

4.The devaluing of the U.S. dollar seems to be a trend that will stay. Moody, Standard and Poor, and Fitch have announced that they may be devaluing the rating of U.S. Treasury bonds (see NY Times article, 15 March 2010, as well as the editorial on 20 March 2010), and there have been discussions within the United Nations of the International Monetary Fund phasing out its dependency on the U.S. dollar. The governments seem to be acting as if the U.S. dollar will be replaced as the global currency.

5.Digging, digging is everywhere. The U.S. has no nuclear enemies, yet it is digging huge underground facilities in inhospitable regions difficult for the masses to reach. Why? On the other hand, the Chinese tend to think collectively, and China is digging extraordinary subway complexes under most of its major cities in a crash program that seems odd in terms of timing and scope. See, for example, the NY Times article by Keith Bradsher, 27 March 2009. Subways are, of course, conveniently located underground tunnels, and such tunnels could house millions of people in an emergency. Russia announced in 2011 that it is adding 5,000 new nuclear bomb shelters in Moscow, enabling it to protect all of Moscow's residents. The program is to be rushed so that it is finished in 2012. Why? Russia has no nuclear enemies. Russia's new subway systems have also been placed deeper than needed so that they can be used as deep emergency shelters. Again, why? Why all these preparations, and why the rush?

6.NASA is now predicting that the Sun may generate unprecedented solar storms for a lengthy period in 2012-13. We cannot accurately predict Earth's normal weather a week in advance, and it is by no means clear how NASA can do this with respect unprecedented weather on the Sun years in advance. They are saying that we are more dependent on vulnerable computer technology now. But we had similar dependencies in 2001 and 1990 when previous 11-year solar cycles hit. What is different about the current cycle? Some might suggest that NASA is acting as if it has some extra information that is not currently stated.

Project Overview for the 1 June 2008 and 1 June 2013 Experiments:

The remote viewers participating in this study have remote viewed various geographically determined targets during two time periods: 1 June 2008 and 1 June 2013. This five-year gap will allow us to look for planetary change that may occur over that period. We are also aware that popular culture views the year 2012 as potentially significant, and some people may be interested in following our results because of this. (No reason scientific studies can't be fun!)

From our past research we know that the future is probabilistic. (See also, the Multiple Universes Project.) If multiple realities emerge from every moment of now, then there is no single future timeline. Thus we hope that by specifying certain timeline conditions with our remote-viewing tasking, it is possible to perceive a specific future (for a specific timeline) correctly. For this reason, our participating remote viewers have perceived the 2013 targets along two separate timelines, with each timeline offering the potential for significant differences in future events given specific possible actions taken by the mainstream scientific community. Thus, we are hoping to discern what the future looks like if the mainstream scientific community pursues one policy as compared with a future in which the mainstream scientific community pursues a different policy. In the former case, the policy is a continuation of a current policy. In the latter case, the policy is an alternate policy that might produce a significantly different future. We are attempting to learn if the publication of information about two future timelines based on differences in current policies can change the future that our current now evolves into.

The various 2008 targets establish a baseline set of criteria by which the accuracy of the remote-viewing results in general may be evaluated. Thus, if the 1 June 2008 targets are perceived accurately by the remote viewers participating in the study, then it is reasonable to assume that the results for the future dates for those same targets will be comparably accurate. Since each geographically determined target is evaluated three times (once in 2008, and twice in 2013 — once for each future timeline), there are three times as many total targets as there are geographically determined targets in this study.

The remote-viewing sessions were conducted prior to the targets being assigned to those sessions by a truly random process (explained in "Experiment Details" below as well as in the video presentation that appears at the top of this page) that took place on Wednesday, 4 June 2008. It was not possible for a remote viewer (or anyone else) to know the identity of a target at the time the target was being remote viewed since the remote-viewing sessions were conducted before 4 June 2008. Thus, the targets are assigned in the future with respect to when the sessions were done, and the remote-viewing data describe the future target assignments.

Article from: http://farsight.org/demo/Demo2008/RV...008_Page1.html

[Bill Ryan]

------

(Pause for a cup of coffee...)

My thanks to everyone who's been contributing so much intelligent value to this thread. Very much appreciated. It's important stuff, and in my opinion and that of many others, cannot be dismissed.

[Jeffrey]

[Lazlo]

Posted by Maunagarjana (here)

Posted by Houman (here)
http://www.naturalnews.com/033564_so...er_plants.html

I would really like to know if what is discussed in that article is really possible. This is the giant radioactive mastodon in the room. Could they have backup power on reactor cooling systems that we have no idea about? Massive power outage would be bad enough, but a slew of Fukushimas across the globe....I don't even want to think of it. I will have to assume that they have prepared for this until proven otherwise.

Use the following link for a sober assessment of our vulnerability done for DHS in November of 2011, and approved for unrestricted release. It's 107 pages long but you can use the table of contents to skim for the really "good" stuff.

After perusing this, try to imagine what they might have that is classified as far as scenarios and impacts.


https://fas.org/irp/agency/dod/jason/spaceweather.pdf

[Bill Ryan]

-------

Inspired by Vivek -- I thought I should post Matt Stein's important article in full:

http://truth-out.org/news/item/7301-...ear-armageddon

Four Hundred Chernobyls:
Solar Flares, Electromagnetic Pulses and Nuclear Armageddon

There are nearly 450 nuclear reactors in the world, with hundreds more being planned or under construction. There are 104 of these reactors in the United States and 195 in Europe. Imagine what havoc it would wreak on our civilization and the planet's ecosystems if we were to suddenly witness 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 already died or continue to suffer from horrific radiation-related health problems ("Chernobyl AIDS," epidemic cancers, chronic fatigue, etcetera) resulting from the Chernobyl reactor explosions, fires and fallout. If just two serious nuclear disasters, spaced 25 years apart, could cause such horrendous environmental catastrophes, it is hard to imagine how we could ever hope to recover from hundreds of similar nuclear incidents occurring simultaneously across the planet. Since more than one-third of all Americans live within 50 miles of a nuclear power plant, this is a serious issue that should be given top priority.[1]

In the past 152 years, Earth has been struck by roughly 100 solar storms, causing significant geomagnetic disturbances (GMD), two of which were powerful enough to rank as "extreme GMDs." If an extreme 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, similar to but over 100 times worse than, the disasters at both Chernobyl and Fukushima. When massive solar flares launch a huge mass of highly charged plasma (a coronal mass ejection, or CME) directly toward Earth, colliding with our planet's outer atmosphere and magnetosphere, the result is a significant geomagnetic disturbance.

The last extreme GMD of a magnitude that could collapse much of the US grid was in May of 1921, long before the advent of modern electronics, widespread electric power grids, and nuclear power plants. We are, mostly, blissfully unaware of this threat and unprepared for its consequences. The good news is that relatively affordable equipment and processes could be installed to protect critical components in the electric power grid and its nuclear reactors, thereby averting this "end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it" scenario. The bad news is that even though panels of scientists and engineers have studied the problem, and the bipartisan Congressional electromagnetic pulse (EMP) commission has presented a list of specific recommendations to Congress, our leaders have yet to approve and implement any significant preventative measures.

Most of us believe that an emergency like this could never happen, and that, if it could, our "authorities" would do everything in their power to prevent such an apocalypse. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. "How could this happen?" you might ask.

Nuclear Power Plants and the Electric Power Grid

Our current global system of electrical power generation and distribution ("the grid"), upon which our modern lifestyles are utterly dependent, is extremely vulnerable to severe geomagnetic storms, which tend to strike our planet on an average of approximately once every 70 to 100 years. We depend on this grid to maintain food production and distribution, telecommunications, Internet services, medical services, military defense, transportation, government, water treatment, sewage and garbage removal, refrigeration, oil refining, gas pumping and all forms of commerce.

Unfortunately, the world's nuclear power plants, as they are currently designed, are critically dependent upon maintaining connection to a functioning electrical grid, for all but relatively short periods of electrical blackouts, in order to keep their reactor cores continuously cooled so as to avoid catastrophic reactor core meltdowns and fires in storage ponds for spent fuel rods.

If an extreme GMD were to cause widespread grid collapse (which it most certainly will), in as little as one or two hours after each nuclear reactor facility's backup generators either fail to start, or run out of fuel, the reactor cores will start to melt down. After a few days without electricity to run the cooling system pumps, the water bath covering the spent fuel rods stored in "spent-fuel ponds" will boil away, allowing the stored fuel rods to melt down and burn [2]. Since the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) currently mandates that only one week's supply of backup generator fuel needs to be stored at each reactor site, it is likely that, after we witness the spectacular nighttime celestial light show from the next extreme GMD, we will have about one week in which to prepare ourselves for Armageddon.

To do nothing is to behave like ostriches with our heads in the sand, blindly believing that "everything will be okay" as our world drifts towards the next natural, inevitable super solar storm and resultant extreme GMD. Such a storm would end the industrialized world as we know it, creating almost incalculable suffering, death and environmental destruction on a scale not seen since the extinction of the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago.

The End of "The Grid" as We Know It

There are records from the 1850s to today of roughly 100 significant geomagnetic solar storms, two of which, in the last 25 years, were strong enough to cause millions of dollars worth of damage to key components that keep our modern grid powered. In March of 1989, a severe solar storm induced powerful electric currents in grid wiring that fried a main power transformer in the HydroQuebec system, causing a cascading grid failure that knocked out power to 6 million customers for nine hours and damaging similar transformers in New Jersey and the UK. More recently, in 2003, a less intense but longer solar storm caused a blackout in Sweden and induced powerful currents in the South African grid that severely damaged or destroyed 14 of their major power transformers, impairing commerce and comfort over major portions of that country as it was forced to resort to massive rolling blackouts that dragged on for many months.[3]

During the great geomagnetic storm of May 14-15, 1921, brilliant aurora displays were reported in the Northern Hemisphere as far south as Mexico and Puerto Rico, and in the Southern Hemisphere as far north as Samoa.[4] This extreme GMD produced ground currents roughly ten times as strong as the 1989 Quebec incident. Just 62 years earlier, the great granddaddy of recorded GMDs, referred to as "the Carrington Event," raged from August 28 to September 4, 1859. This extreme GMD induced currents so powerful that telegraph lines, towers and stations caught on fire at a number of locations around the world. Best estimates are that the Carrington Event was approximately 50 percent stronger than the 1921 storm.[5] Since we are headed into an active solar period much like the one preceding the Carrington Event, scientists are concerned that conditions could be ripe for the next extreme GMD.[6]

Prior to the advent of the microchip and modern extra-high-voltage (EHV) transformers (key grid components that were first introduced in the late 1960s), most electrical systems were relatively robust and resistant to the effects of GMDs. Given that a simple electrostatic spark can fry a microchip and thousands of miles of power lines could act like giant antennas for capturing massive amounts of GMD-spawned electromagnetic energy, modern electrical systems are far more vulnerable than their predecessors.

The federal government recently sponsored a detailed scientific study to better understand how much critical components of our national electrical power grid might be affected by either a naturally occurring GMD or a man-made EMP. Under the auspices of the EMP Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and reviewed in depth by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the National Academy of Sciences, Metatech Corporation undertook extensive modeling and analysis of the potential effects of extreme geomagnetic storms on the US electrical power grid. Based upon a storm as intense as the 1921 storm, Metatech estimated that within the United States, induced voltage and current spikes, combined with harmonic anomalies, would severely damage or destroy over 350 EHV power transformers critical to the functioning of the US grid and possibly impact well over 2000 EHV transformers worldwide.[7]

EHV transformers are made to order and custom-designed for each installation, each weighing as much as 300 tons and costing well over $1 million. Given that there is currently a three-year waiting list for a single EHV transformer (due to recent demand from China and India, lead times grew from one to three years), and that the total global manufacturing capacity is roughly 100 EHV transformers per year when the world's manufacturing centers are functioning properly, you can begin to grasp the implications of widespread transformer losses.

The loss of thousands of EHV transformers worldwide would cause a catastrophic grid collapse across much of the industrialized world. It will take years, at best, for the industrialized world to put itself back together after such an event, especially considering the fact that most of the manufacturing centers that make this equipment will also be grappling with widespread grid failure.

Our Nuclear "Achilles Heel"

Five years ago, I visited the still highly contaminated areas of Ukraine and the Belarus border where much of the radioactive plume from Chernobyl descended on 26 April 1986. I challenge chief scientist John Beddington and environmentalists like George Monbiot or any of the pundits now downplaying the risks of radiation to talk to the doctors, the scientists, the mothers, children and villagers who have been left with the consequences of a major nuclear accident. It was grim. We went from hospital to hospital and from one contaminated village to another. We found deformed and genetically mutated babies in the wards; pitifully sick children in the homes; adolescents with stunted growth and dwarf torsos; fetuses without thighs or fingers and villagers who told us every member of their family was sick. This was 20 years after the accident, but we heard of many unusual clusters of people with rare bone cancers.... Villages testified that ‘the Chernobyl necklace' - thyroid cancer - was so common as to be unremarkable.

- John Vidal, "Nuclear's Green Cheerleaders Forget Chernobyl at Our Peril," The Guardian, April 1, 2011 [8]

What do extended grid blackouts have to do with potential nuclear catastrophes? Nuclear power plants are designed to disconnect automatically from the grid in the event of a local power failure or major grid anomaly; once disconnected, they begin the process of shutting down the reactor's core. In the event of the loss of coolant flow to an active nuclear reactor's core, the reactor will start to melt down and fail catastrophically within a matter of a few hours, at most. In an extreme GMD, nearly every reactor in the world could be affected.

It was a short-term cooling-system failure that caused the partial reactor core meltdown in March 1979 at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania. Similarly, according to Japanese authorities, it was not direct damage from Japan's 9.0 magnitude Tohoku Earthquake on March 11, 2011, that caused the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor disaster, but the loss of electric power to the reactor's cooling system pumps when the reactor's backup batteries and diesel generators were wiped out by the ensuing tidal waves. In the hours and days after the tidal waves shuttered the cooling systems, the cores of reactors number 1, 2 and 3 were in full meltdown and released hydrogen gas, fueling explosions which breached several reactor containment vessels and blew the roof off the building housing reactor number 4's spent-fuel storage pond. Of even greater danger and concern than the reactor cores themselves are the spent fuel rods stored in on-site cooling ponds. Lacking a permanent spent nuclear fuel storage facility, so-called "temporary" nuclear fuel containment ponds are features common to nearly all nuclear reactor facilities. They typically contain the accumulated spent fuel from ten or more decommissioned reactor cores. Due to lack of a permanent repository, most of these fuel containment ponds are greatly overloaded and tightly packed beyond original design. They are generally surrounded by common light industrial buildings with concrete walls and corrugated steel roofs. Unlike the active reactor cores, which are encased inside massive "containment vessels" with thick walls of concrete and steel, the buildings surrounding spent fuel rod storage ponds would do practically nothing to contain radioactive contaminants in the event of prolonged cooling system failures.

Since spent fuel ponds typically hold far greater quantities of highly radioactive material then the active nuclear reactors locked inside reinforced containment vessels, they clearly present far greater potential for the catastrophic spread of highly radioactive contaminants over huge swaths of land, polluting the environment for multiple generations. A study by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) determined that the "boil down time" for spent fuel rod containment ponds runs from between 4 and 22 days after loss of cooling system power before degenerating into a Fukushima-like situation, depending upon the type of nuclear reactor and how recently its latest batch of fuel rods had been decommissioned.[9]
Reactor fuel rods have a protective zirconium cladding, which, if superheated while exposed to air, will burn with intense, self-generating heat, much like a magnesium fire, releasing highly radioactive aerosols and smoke. According to nuclear whistleblower and former senior vice president for Nuclear Engineering Services Arnie Gundersen, once a zirconium fire has started, due to its extreme temperatures and high reactivity, contact with water will result in the water dissociating into hydrogen and oxygen gases, which will almost certainly lead to violent explosions. Gundersen says that once a zirconium fuel rod fire has started, the worst thing you could do is to try to quench the fire with water streams, which would cause violent explosions. Gundersen believes the massive explosion that blew the roof off the spent fuel pond at Fukushima was caused by zirconium-induced hydrogen dissociation.[10]

Had it not been for heroic efforts on the part of Japan's nuclear workers to replenish waters in the spent fuel pool at Fukushima, those spent fuel rods would have melted down and ignited their zirconium cladding, which most likely would have released far more radioactive contamination than what came from the three reactor core meltdowns. Japanese officials have estimated that Fukushima Daiichi has already released just over half as much total radioactive contamination as was released by Chernobyl into the local environment, but other sources estimate it could be significantly more than at Chernobyl. In the event of an extreme GMD-induced long-term grid collapse covering much of the globe, if just half of the world's spent fuel ponds were to boil off their water and become radioactive, zirconium-fed infernos, the ensuing contamination could far exceed the cumulative effect of 400 Chernobyls.

Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack

Many of the control systems we considered achieved optimal connectivity through Ethernet cabling. EMP coupling of electrical transients to the cables proved to be an important vulnerability during threat illumination.... The testing and analysis indicate that the electronics could be expected to see roughly 100 to 700 ampere current transients on typical Ethernet cables. Effects noted in EMP testing occurred at the lower end of this scale. The bottom line observation at the end of the testing was that every system failed when exposed to the simulated EMP environment.

— Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack [11]

Electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) and solar super storms are two different, but related, categories of events that are often described as high-impact, low frequency (HILF) events. Events categorized as HILF don't happen very often, but if and when they do, they have the potential to severely affect the lives of millions of people. Think of an EMP as a super-powerful radio wave capable of inducing damaging voltage spikes in electrical wires and electronic devices across vast geographical areas. (Note that the geomagnetic effects of solar storms are also described as "natural EMP.")

What is generally referred to as an EMP strike is the deliberate detonation of a nuclear device at a high altitude, roughly defined as somewhere between 24 and 240 miles (40 and 400 kilometers) above the surface of the Earth. Nuclear detonations of this type have the potential to seriously damage electronics and electrical power grids along their line of sight, covering distances on the order of an area 1,500 miles (2,500 kilometers) in diameter, an area roughly equal to the distance between Quebec City in Canada and Dallas, Texas.
The concern is that some rogue state or terrorist organization might build its own nuclear device from scratch or buy one illegally, procure a Scud missile (or similar weapon) on the black market and launch the nuclear device from a large fishing boat or freighter somewhere off the coast of the United States, causing grid collapse and widespread damage to electronic devices across roughly 50 percent of America. Much like an extreme GMD, a powerful EMP attack would also cause widespread grid collapse, but one limited to a much smaller geographical area.

A powerful EMP from a sub-orbital nuclear detonation would cause extreme electromagnetic effects, starting with an initial, short-duration, "speed of light" pulse, referred to as an "E1" effect, followed by a middle-duration pulse called an "E2" effect, followed by a longer-duration disturbance known as an "E3" effect. The "E1" effect lasts a few nanoseconds and is similar to massive discharges of electrostatic sparks, which are particularly damaging to digital microelectronic chips used in most modern electronic equipment.

The "E2" effects last a fraction of a second and are equal to many thousands to millions of lightning strikes hitting over a widespread area at almost exactly the same time. In the case of a nuclear-induced EMP, its E3 effect starts after about a half-second and may continue for several minutes. The E3 effect can be thought of as a "long, slow burn," and, electromagnetically, it is quite similar to the effects from an extreme GMD, except that the latter may continue for a number of hours or days.

A "successful" EMP attack launched against the US would most likely result in the immediate collapse of the grid across roughly 50 percent of the country, a stock market crash and critical failures in many affected areas' electronic systems that control nuclear reactors, chemical plants, telecommunications systems and industrial processes. These systems include programmable logic controllers (PLC), digital control systems (DCS), and supervisory control and data acquisition systems (SCADA).

The only good news about an EMP strike is that its effect will cover a much smaller area than an extreme GMD, so there will be a significant portion of the rest of the United States, as well as the rest of the outside world, left intact and able to lend a hand toward rebuilding critical infrastructure in the affected areas. Imagine the near-total loss of a functioning infrastructure across an area of about a million square miles (approximately 1.6 million square kilometers, roughly equivalent to 50 Hurricane Katrinas happening simultaneously) and you will have some idea of the potentially crippling effect of an EMP attack from a single, medium-sized, sub-orbital nuclear detonation!

Preventing Armageddon

The Congressionally mandated EMP Commission has studied the threat of both EMP and extreme GMD events and made recommendations to the US Congress to implement protective devices and procedures to ensure the survival of the grid and other critical infrastructures in either event. John Kappenman, author of the Metatech study, estimates that it would cost about $1 billion to build special protective devices into the US grid to protect its EHV transformers from EMP or extreme GMD damage and to build stores of critical replacement parts should some of these items be damaged or destroyed. Kappenman estimates that it would cost significantly less than $1 billion to store at least a year's worth of diesel fuel for backup generators at each US nuclear facility and to store sets of critical spare parts, such as backup generators, inside EMP-hardened steel containers to be available for quick change-out in the event that any of these items were damaged by an EMP or GMD.[12]

For the cost of a single B-2 bomber or a tiny fraction of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bank bailout, we could invest in preventative measures to avert what might well become the end of life as we know it. There is no way to protect against all possible effects from an extreme GMD or an EMP attack, but we could implement measures to protect against the worst effects. Since 2008, Congress has narrowly failed to pass legislation that would implement at least some of the EMP Commission's recommendations.[13]

We have a long ways to go to make our world EMP and GMD safe. Citizens can do their part to push for legislation to move toward this goal and work inside our homes and communities to develop local resilience and self reliance, so that in the event of a long-term grid-down scenario, we might make the most of a bad situation. The same tools that are espoused by the Transition movement for developing local self-reliance and resilience to help cope with the twin effects of climate change and peak oil could also serve communities well in the event of an EMP attack or extreme GMD. If our country were to implement safeguards to protect our grid and nuclear power plants from EMP, it would also eliminate the primary incentive for a terrorist to launch an EMP attack. The sooner we take these actions, the less chance that an EMP attack will occur.

For more information or to get involved, see http://empactamerica.org, http://survive-emp.com and http://www.transitionnetwork.org, or contact your Congressperson at http://www.contactingthecongress.org.

Endnotes

[1] Bill Dedman, "Nuclear Neighbors: Population Rises Near Nuclear Reactors," MSNBC.com. Accessed December 2011.
[2] Dina Cappiello, "Long Blackouts Pose Risk to U.S. Nuclear Reactors," Associated Press, March 29, 2011.
[3] Lawrence E. Joseph, "The Sun Also Surprises," New York Times, August 15, 2010. Accessed August 2010.
[4] S. M. Silverman and E. W. Cliver, "Low-Altitude Auroras: The Magnetic Storm of 14-15 May 1921," Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 63, (2001), p. 523-535. Additionally, "High-Impact, Low-Frequency Event Risk to the North American Bulk Power System: A Jointly Commissioned Summary Report of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation and the U.S. Department of Energy's November 2009 Workshop," June, 2010, p. 68.
[5] Committee on the Societal and Economic Impacts of Severe Space Weather Events: A Workshop National Research Council, "Severe Space Weather Events: Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts Workshop Report," National Research Council of the National Academies (2008), p. 7-13, and p. 100. Additionally, E. W. Cliver and L. Svalgaard, "The 1859 Solar-Terrestrial Disturbance and the Current Limits of Extreme Space Weather Activity," Solar Physics (2004) 224, P. 407-422.
[6] Richard A. Lovett, "What if the Biggest Solar Storm on Record Happened Today?" National Geographic News, March 2, 2011. Accessed December 2011.
[7] John Kappenman, "Geomagnetic Storms and Their Impacts on the U.S. Power Grid," Metatech Corporation, prepared for Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Meta-R-319, January 2010, p. 2-29.
[8] John Vidal, "Nuclear's Green Cheerleaders Forget Chernobyl at Our Peril," Guardian.co.uk, April 1, 2011. Accessed May 2011.
[9] NUREG-1738, "Technical Study of Spent Fuel Pool Accident Risk at Decommissioning Nuclear Power Plants," February 2001, as reported in "Petition for Rulemaking: Docket No. PRM-50-96," Foundation for Resilient Societies before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, p. 3-9 and 49-50. Accessed December, 2011.
[10] Arnold Gundersen, interview by author, November 2011.
[11] "Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack: Critical National Infrastructures," April, 2008, p. 6.
[12] John Kappenman, interview by author, December 2011.
[13] Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, "Statement Before the Congressional Caucus on EMP," EMPact America, February 15, 2011. Accessed November 2011.

[ghostrider]

Posted by Ilie Pandia (here)
Hi TargeT,

Thanks for the info. Would taking the grid off line temporary help protect the transformers? And such a CME would hit only half of the planet that happens to be exposed to the Sun at that time, right?

Also, from what I've read is still not clear why we should go under-ground...

three days without power, or food , humans can become savage and dangerous , thinking only of self preservation . imagine no power for a month ? six months ? getting underground you could hide from the craziness of humans gone wild.

[Christine]

Posted by Maunagarjana (here)

Posted by Houman (here)
http://www.naturalnews.com/033564_so...er_plants.html

I would really like to know if what is discussed in that article is really possible. This is the giant radioactive mastodon in the room. Could they have backup power on reactor cooling systems that we have no idea about? Massive power outage would be bad enough, but a slew of Fukushimas across the globe....I don't even want to think of it. I will have to assume that they have prepared for this until proven otherwise.

Read the article again. No "they" (remember who "they" are) haven't prepared for this except to save their own hides. Think just think, Look just look..... and you will have your answer. 700 nuclear reactors operating on our planet and one of the most developed nations, Japan, had no back up in place.

I know it is unthinkable and not one of us on this forum wants to think this will happen, but many are aware of the almost certain eventuality of an event like this.

So the best we can do is be prepared, spiritually, emotionally and physically. Also please do know that there are many, many beings working to help prevent, delay, or minimize the impact of such an event.

La Tigra

[gripreaper]

John Kappenman, author of the Metatech study, estimates that it would cost about $1 billion to build special protective devices into the US grid to protect its EHV transformers from EMP or extreme GMD damage and to build stores of critical replacement parts should some of these items be damaged or destroyed.

For a measly one billion they could protect the grid, but they are not doing it.