WASHINGTON—With various proposals emerging as key components of each of the 2016 presidential hopefuls’ immigration policies, sources confirmed Thursday that the Republican field remains sharply divided regarding how much voltage should be used to electrify a border wall with Mexico. “This continues to be one of the most contentious issues within the GOP ranks, with more moderate voices like Jeb Bush advocating for the fence to deliver a mild shock of 75 volts, while others, such as Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, contend that no less than 20,000 volts coursing through the entire length of the 1,900-mile fence is needed to protect American interests,” said political analyst Bryant Suthers, adding that even candidates who typically share common ground, such as Mike Huckabee and Bobby Jindal, differ dramatically on how far backward they believe the fence’s electrical charge should blow would-be illegal immigrants when the wires are contacted.
“And this is to say nothing of Ben Carson’s flip-flopping on whether to use a standard alternating current or a potentially more dangerous direct current, or the constant squabbling over how loudly the electrified wall should crackle and buzz to serve as a deterrent to any potential migrants and their children. It will be interesting to see which candidate’s views emerge victorious, as this is an issue that the party’s base is eager to see come to fruition.” Suthers noted, however, that none of the candidates had yet put forward any details about how they would fund the construction of the electrified wall or the specially trained border patrol units needed to scrape the charred remains of Mexicans off its surface.
Sending all the current from the 3,900 megawatt Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant to the border fence ought to do the trick. Heh. (And yes, I noted it was an Onion article.)
[img
[/img]
Man…..if only!
Bug zapper equivalent levels would be cool so they’re instantly desiccated with a nice satisfying BZZZZZZTTT and a puff of smoke!
Could we get one installed in DC too? Maybe we could convince the 535 that it’s a new security device for screening out terrorists they must pass through to get to work.
I favor land mines over a fence.
Cheaper and more effective.
That’s odd. The Onion is usually funny.
One billion volts
220-240 Volts should be a deterrent. Keeping it energized would be the challenge. I’d prefer something more medieval.
It’s a great thought but it’s an onion article.
But back to reality I grew up in the country and I can tell you any country boy knows how to disable an electric fence in nothing flat, short the thing to ground— done!
Having said that I remember a story about copper thieves in Russia. They would short out the high voltage power lines and they knew the exact start up protocol that the power company followed and the exact amount of time they had to safely go and cut the power lines, steal the copper, before the lines would be re-energized. They did this again and again quite successfully and took a lot of copper. Finally the power company figured out what the crooks were counting on and changed the timing on their start up procedure, shortened it substantially. Fried a few crooks. Crooks don’t go after the copper in the high voltage power lines in Russia anymore.
Just enough current to cook them medium rare. Coyotes gotta eat, too, you know.
It would be great if the fence could be rigged to squirt a bit of tabasco and ketchup on them, for that added kick. Coyotes get tired of bland meat, just like humans.
As the voltage goes up, so the cost (fixed and recurrent) of associated infrastructure scales accordingly.
The problem is that LV requires very little “protection” to obliterate its effect (1mm PVC sheeting will completely insulate a 240v conductor from ground, as will all “off the shelf” gardening gloves!). So, to retain an acceptable level of deterrence, the voltage MUST be significant.
11kV would probably be ideal – a very common “sub-distribution” level, and with plenty of “off the shelf” infrastructure to minimise the need for investment. Insulation / bushing requirements are very modest, and corona losses would be non-existent. However, 1900 miles (3000 km) is a VERY long line, and the line loses (capacitance, resistive) will be significant, however with the current interest in “Green” energy I’m sure “The Government” might view this as an ideal “flagship” programme – solar during the day, and battery (courtesy of Tesla excess capacity) during the night. The occasional battery fire might provide added deterrence?? 🙂
When California sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems to us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.