Effects of Hypothetical Improvised Nuclear Detonation on the Electrical Infrastructure

Conference: Internationaler ETG-Kongress 2013 – Energieversorgung auf dem Weg nach 2050 - Symposium 1: Security in Critical Infrastructures Today
11/05/2013 - 11/06/2013 at Berlin, Deutschland

Proceedings: Internationaler ETG-Kongress 2013 – Energieversorgung auf dem Weg nach 2050

Pages: 7Language: englishTyp: PDF

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Authors:
Barrett, Christopher L.; Eubank, Stephen; Evrenosoglu, C. Yaman; Marathe, Achla; Marathe, Madhav V.; Phadke, Arun; Thorp, James; Vullikanti, Anil (Network Dynamics and Simulation Science Laboratory, Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA)

Abstract:
We study the impacts of a hypothetical improvised nuclear detonation (IND) on the electrical infrastructure and its cascading effects on other urban inter-dependent infrastructures of a major metropolitan area in the US. We synthesize open source information, expert knowledge, commercial software and Google Earth data to derive a realistic electrical transmission and distribution network spanning the region. A dynamic analysis of the geo-located grid is carried out to determine the cause of malfunction of components, and their short-term and long-term effect on the stability of the grid. Finally a detailed estimate of the cost of damage to the major components of the infrastructure is provided.