Much of America's power grid and telecommunications systems is vulnerable to EMP attack.
Protect the vital nodes of America's power grid and telecommunications systems.
This is most particularly true in developing countries that lack energetic fuels and power grid infrastructures, and which depend on distributed systems.
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What keeps national security experts who study this up at night, is the fact that an EMP blast has the capability to wreak havoc on critical infrastructure such as telecommunications, computer systems, and even the power grid.
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Xtreme, which has attracted backing from venture capital firms and corporate investors like Dow Chemical, Fluor and BP Alternative Energy, is developing large-scale digital power systems for renewable energy and micro-grid applications.
The young inventor envisages PaveGen systems being used to power off-grid appliances such as public lighting, illuminated street maps and advertising, and to be installed in areas of dense human traffic such as city centers, underground stations and school corridors.
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President Obama warned that the country's enemies were "seeking the ability to sabotage our power grid, our financial institutions and our air traffic control systems".
In 2009, this newspaper reported that the control systems for the U.S. electric power grid had been hacked and secret openings created so that the attacker could get back in with ease.
By unleashing a massive pulse of electromagnetic radiation sweeping over the planet, a severe solar storm could potentially knock out the electric power grid, silence radio and satellite communications and disrupt GPS navigation systems.
Now GE sells wind turbines, smart grid systems and oil and gas technology around the world, as well as the big gas power turbines that made it an industry leader in the U.S. a long time ago.
Micro-grids are independent controllable and defined systems including electric generating and consuming assets that can be connected to or disconnected from the larger power grid, and they are becoming more popular.
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