G'day - I work in housing in Canada and have a question about EMP's (ElectroMagnetic Pulses). One of my acquaintances attended the Sept'99 URSI conference in Toronto (Union of Radio Scientists) - he mentionned concerns about the upcoming solar activity and EMP's. These can apparently be quite disruptive and don't require a long antenna like Geomagnetic Induced Currents (GIC's) - apparently 2 km is long enough to be affected by an EMP - this could be a water line, street hydro line, etc. My concern is whether our standard household circuit breakers are hopelessly undersized for such strikes - I myself would like to keep all my costly electronics and other appliances in fine working condition. Normally we think these effects are caused by lightning and other similar types of surges.

Thanks for sharing, Christopher Ives - Research Division CMHC