Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization
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For the current activities regarding the CTBT, see Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization.
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) is an international organization that will be established upon the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, a Convention that outlaws nuclear test explosions. Its seat will be Vienna, Austria. The organization will be tasked with verifying the ban on nuclear tests and will operate therefore a worldwide monitoring system and may conduct on site inspections. The Preparatory Commission for the CTBTO, and its Provisional Technical Secretariat, were established in 1997 and are headquartered in Vienna, Austria.Status
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty will enter into force 180 days after the Treaty has been ratified by 44 States, listed in Annex 2 of the Treaty, which were designated to have a nuclear reactor or at least some advanced level of nuclear technology. As of March 2015, 41 of these Annex 2 states have signed the treaty and 36 have ratified. India, North Korea and Pakistan have not signed or ratified the treaty; China, Egypt, Iran, Israel and the United States have signed but have not ratified.[1]Preparatory Commission
The Preparatory Commission was established in 1997 and is tasked with making preparations for effective implementation of the Treaty, in particular by establishing its verification regime. The main task is establishing and provisionally operating the 337-facility International Monitoring System (IMS), including its International Data Centre (IDC) and Global Communications Infrastructure (GCI). The Commission is tasked also with the development of operational manuals, including a manual to guide conduct of on-site inspections.International Monitoring System (IMS) and Communications infrastructure
Radionuclide station on Schauinsland in Germany
- 50 primary and 120 auxiliary seismic monitoring stations.
- 11 hydro-acoustic stations detecting acoustic waves in the oceans.
- 60 infra-sound stations using microbarographs (acoustic pressure sensors) to detect very low-frequency sound waves.
- 80 radionuclide stations using air samplers to detect radioactive particles released from atmospheric explosions and/or vented from underground or under-water explosions.
- 16 radionuclide laboratories for analysis of samples from the radionuclide stations.
States Parties will have equal and direct access to all IMS data, raw or processed, for verification as well as civilian uses. The Preparatory Commission has started the building and verification of the system of which as of April 2011 about 80% was operational.
Consultation and Clarification (C&C)
States Parties to the Treaty are encouraged to conduct a Consultation and Clarification process (C&C) before requesting an on-site inspection. The state that has concerns about an ambiguous event should, whenever possible, make any effort to clarify it through consultations with the state in whose territory this event occurred, either directly or through the Organization.On Site Inspection (OSI)
If an event detected by the IMS (or by other means) raises concerns about violation of the basic obligations of the CTBT, an OSI may be conducted to clarify whether a nuclear explosion has taken place. Such an inspection could take place only after entry into force of the Treaty, and would require agreement by at least 30 of the 51 members of the CTBTO's Executive Council. An inspection area of up to 1000 square kilometres would be searched by a team of inspectors (up to 40). Only State Parties to the Treaty may submit a request for an OSI.When conducting an OSI, a number of detection techniques can be used. These techniques include position finding, visual observation, passive seismic measurements and radioactivity measurements including gamma radiation and radioactive noble gases such as Argon-37 and isotopes of Xenon for an initial period of up to 25 days. Further, for a continuation period of up to 60 days, more intrusive measurements can be used on-site including active and resonance seismic measurements as well as ground penetrating radar, gravity, and electric and magnetic field mappings. Argon-37 field measurement is a unique technology specially developed for the purpose of OSI. Drilling to obtain radioactive samples from a suspected underground explosion site is also allowed. Data collected from various methods have to be fused and interpreted for decision making purposes. An important task of the CTBTO is to explore how recent scientific and technical advances in these technologies can be applied to an OSI.[2]
Confidence-building measures
In addition to the IMS, C&C and OSI, the verification regime of the CTBT includes also the fourth element of Confidence-Building Measures. This requires States Parties to the treaty to notify the Organization, if possible in advance, of any chemical explosion using 300 tonnes or greater of TNT-equivalent blasting material to be detonated. This is required in order to contribute to the timely resolution of any compliance concerns and to assist in the calibration of IMS stations.This page was last modified on 30 April 2016, at 17:11.
Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
CTBTO Preparatory Commission logo
|
|
Member States ( )
(States Signatories of the CTBT) |
|
| Formation | 19 November 1996[1] |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Vienna International Centre, Austria 48°14′05″N 16°25′01″ECoordinates: 48°14′05″N 16°25′01″E |
Membership
|
183 member states All states signatories to the CTBT are automatically members. |
Executive Secretary
|
Lassina Zerbo[2] |
Budget
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$45 million plus €60 million (2012)[2] |
Staff
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around 250[2] |
| Website | ctbto.org |
Organization
The Preparatory Commission has a Plenary Body (sometimes called the Preparatory Commission as well) which meets twice a year and is composed of the countries that signed the CTBT.[3] The commission has two working groups working on financial (Working Group A) and verification matters (Working Group B). Its main activities are performed by the Provisional Technical Secretariat. This organization is led by the Executive Secretary. An overview of Executive Secretaries is shown below:
Lassina Zerbo, Executive Secretary of the Provisional Secretariat
| Country | Name | Start of Term |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | Wolfgang Hoffmann | 3 March 1997[4] |
| Hungary | Tibor Tóth | 1 August 2005 |
| Burkina Faso | Lassina Zerbo | 1 August 2013 |
Monitoring Systems and Communication systems
The Preparatory Commission has started building the global systems for the detection of nuclear tests. The system consists of an International Monitoring System (IMS), a Global Communications Infrastructure as well as an International Data Center. The systems are not complete but largely operational.International Monitoring System (IMS)
- 50 primary and 120 auxiliary seismic monitoring stations. Primary stations deliver data online in real time, whereas auxiliary stations provide data upon request. Seismic data is used to locate seismic events and to distinguish between an underground nuclear explosion and the numerous earthquakes that occur around the globe.
- 11 hydroacoustic stations detecting acoustic waves in the oceans. Six of these are hydrophone stations that use underwater microphones that transmit signals via cable to a shore station. Hydrophone stations are extremely sensitive and pick up acoustic waves from underwater events, including explosions, occurring very far away. The other five are seismic stations located on islands (T-phase stations) that use seismometers to detect acoustic waves converted to seismic waves when they hit the island.
- 60 infrasound stations using microbarographs (acoustic pressure sensors) to detect very low-frequency sound waves in the atmosphere produced by natural and man-made events. These stations are arrays of four to eight sensors which are located one to three kilometers apart. The data are used to locate and to distinguish between atmospheric explosions and natural phenomena such as meteorites, explosive volcanoes and meteorological events as well as man-made phenomena such as re-entering space debris, rocket launches and supersonic aircraft.
- 80 radionuclide stations using air samplers to detect radioactive particles released from atmospheric explosions and/or vented from underground or under-water explosions. The presence of specific radionuclides provides unambiguous evidence of a nuclear explosion. Forty of the stations will be equipped with noble gas detection. There are several activities sponsored by the IMS, one of which is the International Noble Gas Experiment.
- 16 radionuclide laboratories for analysis of samples from the radionuclide stations.
| Station type[6] | Planned | Under Construction | Testing | Certified | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary Seismic | 3 | 3 | 2 | 42 | 50 |
| Auxiliary Seismic | 4 | 4 | 8 | 104 | 120 |
| Infrasound | 11 | 4 | 0 | 45 | 60 |
| Hydroacoustic | 0 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 11 |
| Radionuclide | 5 | 10 | 3 | 62 | 80 |
Global Communications Infrastructure (GCI) and International Data Centre (IDC)
Communication systems at hydroacoustic station HA08 at British Indian Ocean Territory
At the IDC, IMS data collected through GCI - approximately 16 gigabytes per day - is stored and correlated using custom software to generate reports of significant events, which are subsequently reviewed by specially trained analysts in order to prepare quality-controlled event bulletins. The IDC operates a large redundant database of events and a 125 terabyte mass storage facility that provides archiving capacity for more than ten years of verification data.
On-Site Inspections (OSI)
Once the CTBT enters into force an on-site inspection [7] can be dispatched to the area of a suspicious nuclear explosion if the data from the IMS indicate that a nuclear test has taken place there. Inspectors will collect evidence on the ground at the suspected site. Such an inspection can only be requested and approved by Member States once the CTBT has entered into force. A large on-site inspection exercise was carried out in September 2008 in Kazakhstan. Another full-scale exercise (known as the Integrated Field Exercise 2014 or IFE14) was carried out in Jordan and Austria from 3 November to 9 December 2014. It was the largest on-site inspection exercise conducted to date and it involved four years of preparation, 150 tons of specialized equipment and over 200 international experts.[8]2006, 2009 and 2013 Nuclear Tests by North Korea
In the morning of 9 October 2006, North Korea set off a nuclear explosion. It detonated a nuclear device at a test site in the northeast of the country. The CTBTO’s global monitoring network detected the low yield explosion with 22 of its seismic stations. Within two hours of the explosion, CTBTO Member States received initial information about the time, location and magnitude of the blast.Two weeks after the blast, a monitoring station at Yellowknife in northern Canada detected traces of the radioactive noble gas xenon in the air. The presence of xenon provides evidence that a nuclear explosion has taken place. This detection confirmed that the 2006 North Korean nuclear test was a nuclear explosion. Analysts at the CTBTO then used special calculations to backtrack the detected xenon to determine its source. The calculation indicated that the detected noble gas originated from North Korea.[9]
North Korea conducted a second nuclear test on 25 May 2009. Seismic data indicated an unusually large underground explosion. The blast took place only a few kilometers from where the first nuclear device had been detonated in 2006.
Considerably more seismic stations registered the explosion in 2009 than in 2006. This was due to the greater magnitude of the blast and the higher number of monitoring stations in operation. Two hours after the test, the CTBTO presented initial findings to its Member States. The information available also helped analysts to identify a far smaller area as the location of the explosion. In 2009 the estimated area covered 264 km2 compared to 880 km2 in 2006.[10][11]
In the morning of 12 February 2013 (at 02.57.51 UTC), the CTBTO monitoring system detected another unusual seismic event in North Korea, which measured 4.9 in magnitude. Later that morning, North Korea announced that it had conducted a third nuclear test. The event was registered by 94 seismic stations and two infrasound stations in the CTBTO’s network. The first automatic analysis of location, time and magnitude was made available to Member States in less than an hour.[12] The analysed data showed the event’s location (with a certainty of about +/- 8.1 km) was largely identical with the two previous nuclear tests (Lat.: 41.313 degrees north; long.: 129.101 degrees east). As with the two previous nuclear tests, the signal was emitted from close to the surface.[13]
The CTBTO radionuclide network later made a significant detection of radioactive isotopes of xenon - xenon-131m and xenon-133 - that could be attributed to the nuclear test. The detection was made at the radionuclide station in Takasaki, Japan, located at around 1,000 kilometres, or 620 miles, from the North Korean test site. Lower levels were picked up at another station in Ussuriysk, Russia.[14][15] Using Atmospheric Transport Modelling, which calculates the three-dimensional travel path of airborne radioactivity on the basis of weather data, the North Korean test site was identified as a possible source for the emission.[16][17]
Civil and Scientific Uses of CTBTO Data
The huge amount of data collected by the CTBTO can also be used for purposes other than detecting nuclear explosions, particularly in the field of disaster mitigation and early warning. In 2006, the CTBTO started providing seismic and hydroacoustic data directly to tsunami warning centers. As of 2012, data is shared with tsunami warning centers in eight countries, mainly in the Indo-Pacific region.[18]Throughout the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster of March 2011, the CTBTO’s radionuclide stations tracked the dispersion of radioactivity on a global scale.[19] More than 1600 detections of radioactive isotopes from the crippled nuclear reactor were picked up by over 40 CTBTO radionuclide monitoring stations. The CTBTO shared its data and analysis with its 183 Member States, as well as international organizations and some 1,200 scientific and academic institutions in 120 countries.[20]
The CTBTO also recorded the infrasound produced in the atmosphere by the meteor explosion over Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2013. Seventeen stations around the world, including one in the Antarctic, recorded the event as the infrasound reverberated around the world multiple times.[21]
Recordings from CTBTO hydrophones was analyzed to determine an impact location for Air France Flight 447 and Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, both of which were lost without a known crash site. No data was detected in the event of Flight 447, even after it was reassessed once the location of the wreckage was known.[22] As of July 2014, Flight 370 remains missing with no known crash site or confirmed debris. Since the only evidence for Flight 370's final resting site comes from an analysis of its satellite transmissions, which has resulted in an imprecise and very large search area, hydroacoustic recordings from CTBTO were analyzed to potentially determine and locate its impact with the Indian Ocean. Analysis of available hydroacoustic recordings (including those made by a CTBTO hydrophone located off Cape Leeuwin, Western Australia) identified one event which may be associated with Flight 370.[22][23][24]
Other potential civil and scientific applications include the use of CTBTO data and technologies in civil aviation and shipping and in climate change research.[25]
This page was last modified on 2 February 2016, at 11:30.
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