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2 Silicon Chip
Graphite bomb is too
clever by half
Just recently, in the conflict in the Balkans,
we’ve heard of a new “graphite” bomb which
has been used to temporarily disable the electrical grid. NATO spokespersons trumpeted
the new bomb as a breakthrough, saying that
they “have their fingers on the switch” and
can take out the power at any time without
doing permanent damage to the country’s
infrastructure. Well, I just wonder about that.
Supposedly, the new bomb is detonated
above the high voltage switchyard for a power
station or for a major substation. The bomb
produces a dense cloud of graphite several hundred metres wide and this
proceeds to short out all the high voltage switchgear in the area and the
power station or substation is then off the air. No major damage is done
but the effect is to immediately disable the power grid and hence prevent
military activities that would otherwise occur.
There seem to be several holes in this story. First, I can’t imagine how a
dense graphite cloud propagated by a major explosion over a high voltage
switchyard would only cause temporary disablement. As far as I can see,
it could well put the respective power station or substation completely out
of commission. Just imagine – everything in the yard, high voltage fuses,
insulators, switchgear – all of it would have graphite forced into every nook
and cranny. How would you clean it out? It would not be simply a matter
of washing everything down with a high pressure hose; graphite is not easy
stuff to clean off.
No, the chances are that the graphite would well and truly permeate the
surface of all insulators and switchgear. In fact, if all the fuses did not let go
immediately, it is quite likely that all the graphite could provide the basis
of a major fire. So it is possible that a great deal of the installation would
have to be replaced, or if not, all of it would have to be painstakingly disassembled, cleaned and checked before it was put back into commission.
In peacetime such a re-commissioning of a large switchyard would probably take months and cost millions of dollars. In a country on a wartime
footing, it is not likely that such damaged switchyards could be properly
re-commissioned until long after the cessation of hostilities. So NATO doesn’t
simply have their finger “on the switch” – they’ve done a great deal more
harm than that. It is also arguable whether they have stopped any military
activities by killing the power.
No, it seems to me that the graphite bomb is another example of technical
overkill. Is this just technology for technologies’ sake? Surely, if the desired
result is to temporarily disable the grid, all that needs to be done is to take
out a few of the high voltage transmission towers. You don’t need a hightech bomb for that.
Leo Simpson
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