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2021-11-06 -Lurid Crime Tales-
Modified drone was used to launch attack on Pennsylvania electricity substation in first known targeted attack on energy infrastructure, Homeland Security says
More, with photos, on yesterday’s story.
[Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News]
  • A joint report from Homeland Security and the FBI revealed a DJI Mavic 2 drone was recovered in June 2020, with a line of copper wire tethered to it

  • Its camera and internal memory card were removed, as were identifying labels

  • If the wire touched the plant's high-voltage equipment, a short circuit, power failure or fire could have happened

  • From 2015 to 2019, 24 US nuclear reactors and fuel storage sites suffered nearly 60 drone incursions

  • Most of the incidents have been marked 'unresolved' but closed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Posted by Skidmark 2021-11-06 07:06|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| [11137 views ]  Top

#1 Low tech sabotage and test runs by enemies foreign or domestic. Imagine the turmoil if a few hundred of these were spread across the US simultaneously. For practically no cost or evident preparations a coordinated strike across he country would paralyze our National leadership and emergency efforts just in time for a strike somewhere overseas, like the South China Sea perhaps?
Even just the nationwide impact would aid in the destabilization effects underway across the once-fruited plain... Cui Bono
Posted by NoMoreBS 2021-11-06 12:51||   2021-11-06 12:51|| Front Page Top

#2 Unless you are able to place it correctly, it will have to be a very thick conductor to do any meaningful damage to a substation.
Posted by M. Murcek 2021-11-06 13:09||   2021-11-06 13:09|| Front Page Top

#3 damn monsanto and their gmos!
Posted by Greng Black3494 2021-11-06 14:03||   2021-11-06 14:03|| Front Page Top

#4 I haven't seen figures on how much a Mavic 2 can lift, but its not much and the extra power needed will cut its range and speed massively. This particular model is more about being a stable camera platform than high performance or lift.

The most I've ever seen one lift is a roll of toilet paper, but they're supposed to be able to lift a Go Pro or similar camera in addition to the built-in camera.
Posted by Rob Crawford 2021-11-06 14:16||   2021-11-06 14:16|| Front Page Top

#5 Here's the pricing info on the new Mavik models
Posted by M. Murcek 2021-11-06 14:54||   2021-11-06 14:54|| Front Page Top

#6 Murcek, actually not so much. The US used a cruise missile delivered cluster bomb unit that carried carbon filament loaded charges to take down Iragi electric stations during the late unpleasantness.
High voltage lines mostly use air gap for insulation, and once there's an arc strike, it perpetuates itself. If you've ever been near high voltage towers in damp weather, you get to hear them sing and crackle. At the yard transformer is the really hazardous zone. That's why there's a fence around the place.
Posted by ed in texas 2021-11-06 15:02||   2021-11-06 15:02|| Front Page Top

#7 
At the yard transformer is the really hazardous zone. That's why there's a fence around the place.

I am still wondering why there isn't some kind of a sight barrier to conceal (at least a little bit) the transformers within, to make it more difficult for a scoped rifleman to put a few holes into them from a safe distance. Using drones to hover in the area could facilitate that kind of attack.
Posted by Bubba Lover of the Faeries8843 2021-11-06 15:21||   2021-11-06 15:21|| Front Page Top

#8 
High voltage lines mostly use air gap for insulation, and once there's an arc strike, it perpetuates itself.

That happened at my house years ago. A circuit breaker to my sump pump was triggered during a heavy rain. I switched it back on, the pump started up, and I could see an arc strike INSIDE my service panel.
White smoke suddenly poured out and beams of arc light shone through it.
For a second I just thought of running away. I wondered how conductive the white smoke might have been.
Instead I reached to the top of the panel, about 18 inches from the arc, and switched off the two main breakers supplying the rest of the panel. The arc stopped immediately.
It turned out there was a lot of corrosion between some of the breakers and the aluminum buss bar. Apparently when I reset the breaker, there was a spark between it and the buss bar connection, started the arc, which immediately spread to a couple of other nearby breaker connections.
Some electrician told me this is a problem with aluminum buss bars and moisture which is much less likely to happen with copper buss bars.
Posted by Bubba Lover of the Faeries8843 2021-11-06 15:27||   2021-11-06 15:27|| Front Page Top

#9 So many means to create mischief. From PEPCO/Exelon: Shiny Balloons and the Electric Grid: What You Need to Know
Posted by Bubba Lover of the Faeries8843 2021-11-06 15:59||   2021-11-06 15:59|| Front Page Top

#10 Bubba, the problem with aluminum bus bars and conductors in general, is that the rate of expansion is higher than copper. When heated, or when current flows through it, the conductor expands slightly. Infinitesimaly. Power off, it draws back. Repeat this a thousand times, a gap forms. Corrosion grows in the gap.
One day, power on, there's oxide in the gap, increasing resistance, heating up. POW!
NFPA (the people that write the fire and electrical codes) have a set of films about arc strikes taken by local surveillance cameras. Watching them makes you want to go sit in a tent somewhere.
Posted by ed in texas 2021-11-06 16:23||   2021-11-06 16:23|| Front Page Top

#11 Some electrician told me this is a problem with aluminum buss bars and moisture which is much less likely to happen with copper buss bars.

Two dissimilar metals in contact form a battery and corrode. Two dissimilar metals in close proximity to each other which get wet (water is the electrolyte) will form a battery and corrode.
Posted by Hupusolet Smith5796 2021-11-06 16:32||   2021-11-06 16:32|| Front Page Top

14:55 Elmerert Hupens2660
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13:36 Old Salty
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