OTOH...
Darwin always WINS!
Show of hands! Who want's to see Mark buy it?
One nuke specifically rigged for EMP would not be able to knock out the power grids for all of the US. Even the largest nukes produced by the USSR. (Very few if any of the massive nukes are operational anymore. Everyone got into the MIRV game. Lots of smaller nukes.) EMP weapons are indeed a threat, but it'd take a number of devices to do so. I don't know the optimium number or placement, and I'm not breaking out the calculator to figure out.
A nuclear bomb detonated high above the United States could unleash an electromagnetic pulse that would shut down the nation's power grid and, along with it, communications, water supplies and even food transportation.
If the effect is long-lasting enough, it also could trigger a social collapse that could conceivably cause the deaths of millions of people and, temporarily, push the nation back 100 years, a congressional commission told the Senate.
The pulse can easily span continent-sized areas, and this radiation can affect systems on land, sea, and air. The first recorded EMP incident accompanied a high-altitude nuclear test over the South Pacific and resulted in power system failures as far away as Hawaii. A large device detonated at 400–500 km over Kansas would affect all of CONUS. The signal from such an event extends to the visual horizon as seen from the burst point.
An EMP weapon of sufficient yield detonated high enough in the atmosphere can bathe our entire continent with EMP. At an altitude of 250 miles, the 48 continental states will be line of site of the blast. The US tested a 1.4 megaton EMP device, Starfish Prime at a 250 mile altitude over Johnson Island. EMP failures were seen in Hawaii 1,300 miles away including street lights, fuses, and phone service were burnt out/disrupted.
would someone mind PM'ing me when I can buy the finished book? I refuse to read a book either on my monitor or printed out on 8.5x11 paper.