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| CTBTO's Control Room [PHOTO: UNifeed] |
Vienna: The International
Monitoring System of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation
(CTBO) is positioned to quickly and reliably detect signs of a nuclear test,
CTBTO Spokesperson Annika Thunborg said in Austria’s capital on Monday.
Thunborg's comments came
amid renewed threats by North Korea that it will conduct a third nuclear
test.
"The CTBTO
monitoring system scans the world for any sign of a nuclear explosion 24 hours
a day, seven days a week. We detected the nuclear tests in North Korea in 2006
and 2009 confidently, and reliably, and swiftly,” CTBO Spokesperson Thunborg
said.
Currently some 275 CTBTO
stations (seismic, infrasound, hydro acoustic, radionuclide and noble gas) are
up and running to scan the earth for any sign of a nuclear explosion.
"We have 150 seismic
stations that are monitoring the underground for any sign of an underground
nuclear test, and the seismic system is very sensitive and it acts very fast –
seismic waves propagate very fast through the earth – so within a couple of
minutes stations all over the world can detect signs of a nuclear explosion,”
she added.
The system is designed to
detect violations of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test- Ban Treaty (CTBT) which
bans nuclear explosions everywhere on the Earth's surface, in the atmosphere,
in outer space, underwater and underground. The treaty was adopted by the
United Nations General Assembly in 1996.
"Part of our
monitoring system detects radioactivity, it sniffs the air for any sign of
radioactivity,” she informed.
"In 2006 and 2009
when North Korea tested the Security Council looked at this issue immediately
on the same day, and all of the member-states that were also members of the UN
Security Council had first-hand information about the magnitude, time, location
and depth of the nuclear test,” Thunborg explained.
One hundred and
eighty-three countries have signed the CTBT, of which 157 have also ratified it. Eight remaining countries must ratify the
Treaty for it to enter into force. They
are China, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and the USA.
A global verification
regime which will comprise over 330 sensors when complete monitors the globe
around the clock for nuclear explosions to detect any violations of the Treaty.
The system reliably detected the nuclear test explosions by North Korea in 2006
and 2009.