THE BLACKOUT BOMB

THE BLACKOUT BOMBby John LewallenIF AND WHEN our nuclear-armed adversaries decide military conflict with the US is imminent, our information civilization could turn off like a light unplugged--a nuclear explosion melting most of the integrated circuits nationwide. A megaton-class, thermonuclear explosion about 250 miles over Omaha, Nebraska, would emit an Electromagnetic Pulse large enough and strong enough to collapse information society from coast to coast at the speed of light. You wouldn't feel anything. It would come and go in less than a second, a massive radio wave, everywhere at once. Picked up by copper wires and carried to the extremely vulnerable integrated circuits at switching centers, the explosion would guarantee that there will be no official announcement of what has happened.