Re:A Bad Solar Storm Could Cause an 'Internet Apocalypse'
by tomatotomato37 on Friday August 27, 2021 @01:53PM
(#28330940)
Is there an engineering reason why fuse/breaker infrastructure can't be upgraded to handle solar storm conditions & cut off the large transformers from the grid rather than planning to let them die and replace them from a stockpile after the fact?
Even if it costs more money than "lol stockpile" I feel like it would be still be the better choice once the time/manpower it would take to move and hookup stockpiled transformers is taken into account, and more resilient in case the storm flares up again two days after we've finally got all the transformers back online
Re:A Bad Solar Storm Could Cause an 'Internet Apocalypse'
by aftbit on Sunday August 29, 2021 @10:33AM
(#28347015)
I wonder how much this was encouraged by the Metcalf sniper attack[1] in 2013? A coordinated human action could trash a lot of transformers, and there's no way our society could survive 18 months without an electric grid.
Re:A Bad Solar Storm Could Cause an 'Internet Apocalypse'
by GDC7 on Friday August 27, 2021 @12:52PM
(#28330123)
> but the countries that are able to avoid damage or rebuild first would see economic growth similar to the post WW2 economic boom.
Those countries will be even better off by securing a supply large enough to ship to countries which fail to address the problem .
We aren't in 1945 anymore. Economies are interconnected to such a degree that a problem somewhere means a problem everywhere
It would be cheap at twice the price, especially in light of the recent infrastructure bills. The damage, the fires, the loss of life caused buy a large solar storm could be comparable to a world war. I hate to put it in a cold & calculating manner, but the countries that are able to avoid damage or rebuild first would see economic growth similar to the post WW2 economic boom.