We've...assumed that all commercial equipment would fail under an EMP pulse.

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Not only would everything be devastated in the immediate vicinity of the blast but an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) could wipe out almost anything that uses electricity (including cars and battery-powered phones, radios, and flashlights) throughout a much wider area.

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Unfortunately, the lack of U.S. nuclear testing since 1992 has also contributed to uncertainty about the adequacy of steps to protect conventional military gear from the effects of high-energy, electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attacks.

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Scientists are gathered this week to discuss a relatively underappreciated threat to our well-being, the impact a huge solar flare (also known as a solar mass ejection (SME) or solar electromagnetic pulse (EMP)) directed at Earth could wreak upon our modern technology.

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The state of America's aging nuclear arsenal also troubled Mr. Gaffney, who warned "Our stockpile is not as safe and reliable as we could make it" and that a resumption of nuclear testing is needed to permit such improvements to be made and to diagnose and correct the Nation's yawning vulnerabilities to electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) attacks.

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Dr. Graham formerly served as President Reagan's Science Advisor and has in recent years chaired the congressionally mandated Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (better known as the EMP Commission).

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Today, the best that can be said is that the extent and duration of future EMP-induced blackouts would depend on whether the emitter generates a small or large pulse, and whether it is detonated at ground-level or from high altitudes.

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Believe it or not, Congress sought to address some of these questions when they established an EMP Commission in 2001, formally known as the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack.

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