Guess the MegaTons of This Nuke

[DBTrek]

Please EMP me, if the other option is irradiating me to death.
EMP me all day long.
IDGAF.

[Smitty-48]

Please EMP me, if the other option is irradiating me to death.
EMP me all day long.
IDGAF.

And the North Koreans know that the theoretical abstraction of EMP is not likely to have the same leverage, thus why they are building towards ICBM's with reentry vehicles in order to deliver hydrogen bombs against population centers, as that is the doomsday scenario which is going to get the most bang for their buck.

Bear in mind, I don't believe that they intend to nuke the CONUS in a first strike, they are simply attempting to gain leverage over the United States in order to win the Korean War by nuclear blackmail, any actual launch against the United States, would be an unintended byproduct of that strategy.

[Smitty-48]

It's like Cuba in 62', the Soviets were in no way intending to go to war with the United States with those missiles, they were simply attempting to leverage the United States into backing off from invading and overthrowing the regime in Havana, when the United States reacted to it as "ZOMG Nuclear Pearl Harbor!", the Soviets where actually shocked and dismayed, they didn't take it to the brink intentionally, they simply miscalculated.

[DBTrek]

I’m no PhD physicist, but I fail to see how bricking a bunch of circuitry through induction via EMP blast is *worse* than incinerating it all in a thermonuclear furnace (which will also carry its own EMP blast, not that it matters since most of the electronics will be melted anyway).

Seems like given the choice, I’d let the EMP hit me every day of the week. China will make more electronics.

[Smitty-48]

I’m no PhD physicist, but I fail to see how bricking a bunch of circuitry through induction via EMP blast is *worse* than incinerating it all in a thermonuclear furnace (which will also carry its own EMP blast, not that it matters since most of the electronics will be melted anyway).

Seems like given the choice, I’d let the EMP hit me every day of the week. China will make more electronics.

Well I'm not saying that EMP would have no effects, it would do serious damage, the nuclear detonation in the ionosphere creates a wide area EMP effect, which comes down all over the place, and it would take out a lot of electronics and Americans would die as a byproduct, but the estimates that Speaker relies on "OMFG 90% of Americans dead within a year!" are wildly speculative and unfounded.

But moreover, the North Koreans could not rely on EMP as their deterrent, because they don't know how much damage it would actually do, and they don't get a second chance, so if they're going to set up to be in a position to launch against the CONUS, they would have to be set up to launch the kitchen sink at it, so even if EMP, certainly not just EMP.

They can walk and chew gum at the same time, EMP and salt the fields with nuclear fallout, just to be sure.

[DBTrek]

How do people see EMP leading to mass casualties?
This I gotta hear.

[Smitty-48]

How do people see EMP leading to mass casualties?
This I gotta hear.

In broad strokes, all the electronics and electrical systems go down, the entire nation is submerged into a dark age, and then Americans turn on each other in a catastrophic internal war for individual survival, eventually wiping each other out, down to the 90th percentile.

As it is the ultimate prepper fantasy, one gathers that the surviving tenth percentile would be the preppers, justifying the whole prepper thing as being a rational exercise, so you can see the circular nature of it.

[DBTrek]

We went through the 1800s without electricity, and managed not to go mass-cannibal. So the assumption is that instead of working to restore our critical infrastructure we’d all go Mad Max? Lolz.

[Smitty-48]

We went through the 1800s without electricity, and managed not to go mass-cannibal. So the assumption is that instead of working to restore our critical infrastructure we’d all go Mad Max? Lolz.

Yeah, basically, it's the ultimate prepper fantasy scenario, Americans themselves as the only existential threat to other Americans, the North Koreans merely the vehicle by which America's natural inclination to destroy itself comes to pass.

[Speaker to Animals]

I’m no PhD physicist, but I fail to see how bricking a bunch of circuitry through induction via EMP blast is *worse* than incinerating it all in a thermonuclear furnace (which will also carry its own EMP blast, not that it matters since most of the electronics will be melted anyway).

Seems like given the choice, I’d let the EMP hit me every day of the week. China will make more electronics.

Depends upon the size of your nuclear arsenal. For North Korea, trying to go with a traditional nuclear attack would be stupid because they are unlikely to build enough fusion bombs to accomplish that feat. But to build bombs designed for EMP, they'd need only a few dozen warheads at most.

One thing is not really feasible whereas the other is immanently feasible.