What We Can Do About Massive Solar Flares

Reader resistant sends in an update to our discussion a month back on the possibility of violent space weather destroying power grids worldwide during the upcoming solar cycle. Wired is running an interview with Lawrence Joseph, author of "Apocalypse 2012: A Scientific Investigation into Civilization's End," and John Kappenman, CEO of electromagnetic damage consulting company MetaTech. The piece brings two new threads to the discussion: the recently discovered presence of an unusually large hole in Earth's geomagnetic shield, magnifying our vulnerability, and possible steps we can take over the next few years to make the power grid more robust against solar flares and coronal mass ejections. There's also that whole Mayan 2012 thing. Quoting John Kapperman: "What we're proposing is to add some fairly small and inexpensive resistors in the transformers' ground connections. The addition of that little bit of resistance would significantly reduce the amount of the geomagnetically induced currents that flow into the grid. In its simplest form, it's something that might be made out of cast iron or stainless steel, about the size of a washing machine. ...we think it's do-able for $40,000 or less per resistor. That's less than what you pay for insurance for a transformer. [In the US] there are about 5,000 transformers to consider this for. ... We're talking about $150 million or so. It's pretty small in the grand scheme of things."

Comments

There's only one solution

[Anonymous Coward]

We must blow up the sun. But we must be quick, since there's only about 12 hours of darkness a day during which we can do it.

Re:There's only one solution

[JustOK]

we could always do it during a cloudy day.

Re:There's only one solution

[derGoldstein]

The sun will see this coming from a MILE away. More than enough time to launch a counter-flare.

And then, the sun will get angry. You wouldn't like it when it's angry.

Re:There's only one solution

[derGoldstein]

Nice, you made a "score:2 Offtopic". I'm trying to generate a "score:3 Troll" myself.

I think you need a +1 weapon to damage a +3 Troll. And needless to say, you're going to need either fire or acid to kill it.

Re:There's only one solution

[Anonymous Coward]

"reposting digg content"? you're a sad, confused little man.

Re:There's only one solution

[Anonymous Coward]

That's no way to talk about kdawson...

Re:There's only one solution

[Culture20]

Specifically, a +5 intelligent Holy Avenger in the hands of a purely lawful good female virgin paladin riding a winged unicorn. And she must look hot in a chainmail bikini.

Re:There's only one solution

[pseudonomous]

Also if you mess with Sun, you mess with Oracle.

Re:There's only one solution

[Donkey_Hotey]

Two words... Bruce Willis.

Act now! Avoid Doomsday!

[Chasmyr]

So, he has determined a doomsday scenario that his company can prevent for $150 million? Lets think about that for a minute...

Re:Fairly small resistors

[derGoldstein]

They're not much bigger, but the larger resistors require a heatsink, and probably a few 12" fans. Preferably Zalman. With blue LEDs.

Re:The title of the book....

[kohaku]

Many Mayan scholars simply think that the Mayans were simply going to reset the calendar on that day back to zero.

Referred to in Mayan texts as "The Great Mayan Integer Overflow".

There should be a law

[ukemike]

We cannot go on with this threat to our infrastructure. Write letters to you congress people and demand that they pass a law BANNING ALL SOLAR FLARES! We should take to the streets in protest. We need sanctions! It's time to get tough! The UN should pass a resolution! Boycott all products that are sun related! Show 'em who's really in charge!

Re:There should be a law

[Sfing_ter]

You don't understand how congress works, first they have to legalize solar flares, then they decide what size/shape/intensity will be allowed. Thus any outside the scope of the law will under the wrath of those in charge - I say we put Sen. Stevens in charge of the Solar Flare Committee. Perhaps he could go on a Junket, or Fact Finding mission to the sun... he could take oh.... all of his colleagues with him. If that doesn't stop the solar flares then we send Lobbyists...

Re:There should be a law

[NecroPsyChroNauTron]

I think the bigger problem is that the sun should be privatized. Then we can expect the magic of the freemarket to sort this all out.

Re:I HAVE A BETTER IDEA!

[Chasmyr]

I think there is already a religion that worships Transformers.

Re:Fairly small resistors

[FatdogHaiku]

...I'd hate to know what they call "huge resistors".

Now those damn stripes on Jupiter makes sense, it's color coded!

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070329.html

Re:Is my off-line data safe?

[ColdWetDog]

You're really worried about your porn, aren't you?

Re:Small and inexpensive resistors

[unitron]

So, basically, you're saying that a trip to Radio Shack for these resistors is likely to be a waste of time?

So it's like most other trips to Radio Shack?