It Is Time for the Ctbt to Come Into Force Helping To

2 0 1 0 www.ctbto.org l 3 MAY to 30 JUNe 2010 I a p r 14 come and vIsIt our exhIbItIon In new york! 1 4 CTBTO u e s s I SpectruM PUTTING AN ctbto Magazine issue 14 | april 2010 END TO NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS THE COMPREHENSIVE NUCLEAR-TEST-BAN TREATY openIng event: 4 may 2010 at 6pm / UN VisItor’s lobby UN Secretary BAN KI-MOON General UN Messenger MICHAEL DOUGLAS of Peace CTBTO TIBOR TÓTH Executive Secretary The exhibition features the history of nuclear testing and the arduous path to adopting the Comprehensive Nuclear- Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). It provides realistic impressions of the CTBT’s globe-spanning alarm system that monitors the planet for signs of a nuclear test. It also shows president of the australia's KazaKhstan's Mexico's how the system promptly Marshall islands foreign Minister Foreign Minister foreign Minister detected the two recent nuclear Jurelang Zedkaia Stephen Smith Kanat Saudabayev Patricia Espinosa explosions in North Korea. And it illustrates how the It Is tIme helpIng to ThIrteen our state-of-the art technologies can help make a difference for the achIeve a years of longstandIng in people’s everyday lives. CTBt world wIthout cooperatIon support to come Into nuclear WIth the for force weapons CTBTO the CTBt ctbto spectrum don't mIss It – the area Is open to the publIc! The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) bans all nuclear explosions on Earth. It opened for signature on 24 September 1996 in New York. As of April 2010, 182 countries had signed the Treaty and 151 had ratified it. Of the 44 nuclear capable States which must ratify the CTBT for it to enter into force, the so-called Annex 2 countries, 35 have done so to date while nine have yet to ratify: China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Pakistan and the United States. The Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear- Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) consists of the States edItor-In-chIef: Signatories and the Provisional Technical Secretariat. Annika Thunborg, The main tasks of the CTBTO are to promote signatures Spokesperson, Chief of Public Information and ratifications and to establish a global verification regime capable of detecting nuclear explosions underground, prepared, coordInated and edIted by: underwater and in the atmosphere. Denise Brettschneider The regime must be operational when the Treaty enters CTBTO staff contrIbutors: into force. It will consist of 337 monitoring facilities Jerry Carter, John Coyne, Andrew Forbes, supported by an International Data Centre and Kirsten Haupt, Matjaz Prah, Mark Prior, on-site inspection measures. Lamine Seydi, Markus Woltran layout: Todd Vincent art dIrectIon: Michael Balgavy DistrIbutIon: Pablo Mehlhorn Photographs and illustrations are at the courtesy of the authors and the Provisional Technical Secretariat. please vIsIt www.ctbto.org p u b l I s h e d b y : Public Information your resource Preparatory Commission for the for stoppIng nuclear testIng Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) If you wish to subscribe to the Vienna International Centre onlIne versIon of the CTBTO spectrum P.O. Box 1200 please visit the ‘email-alert’ area at www.ctbto.org 1400 Vienna, Austria cover Image: t +43 1 26030 6200 The concrete dome is on Runit DisclaImer: Island (part of Enewetak Atoll, The views expressed in articles by external contributors do f +43 1 26030 5823 Marshall Islands). It covers the not necessarily reflect the positions and policies of the CTBTO e [email protected] nine metre deep, 107 metre Preparatory Commission. wide crater created by the 1958 I www.ctbto.org The boundaries and presentation of material on maps do not “Cactus” nuclear test. Under the dome lie 84,927 cubic metres imply the expression of any opinion on the part of the Provisional Printed in Austria, April 2010 of radioactive soil and debris Technical Secretariat concerning the legal status of any country, on Munken Lynx Paper from Bikini and Rongelap Atolls. territory, city or area or its authorities, or concerning the © 2010 CTBTO Preparatory Commission wood and acid-free, [Gettyimages] delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. CTBTO Spectrum – ISSN: 1680-533X certified by the Forest Stewardship Council Table of ConTenTs 2 ediTorial CTBTO Executive Secretary Tibor Tóth 3 StaTus of CTBT signatures and ratifications (as of 6 April 2010) 4 QuoTes 5 inTerview Its time for the CTBTO to come into force President Jurelang Zedkaia of the Marshall Islands 8 voiCes The CTBT: Helping to achieve a world without nuclear weapons by Stephen Smith, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Australia 11 Thirteen years of cooperation with the CTBTO by Kanat Saudabayev, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan 15 Our longstanding support for the CTBT by Patricia Espinosa Cantellano, Secretary of Foreign Relations of Mexico 18 inTerview Ambassador Stephen Ledogar, U.S. chief negotiator of the CTBT talks to Annika Thunborg, Head of Public Information at the CTBTO 22 StaTus of certified IMS facilities (as of 6 April 2010) 23 in MeMory of Boris Kvok, Director of the On-site Inspection Division 24 on-siTe inspections Main lessons from the Integrated Field Exercise 2008 by John R. Walker 28 CAPACiTy BUILDING Reading the waves: How the CTBTO strengthens its monitoring system with knowledge by Kirstie Gregorich Hansen 30 Putting down its digital feet: A CTBTO project offers Member States the keys to better use its knowledge by Peter Rickwood 32 verifiCaTion ScienCe Machine learning for Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty monitoring by Stuart Russell, Sheila Vaidya and Ronan Le Bras 36 poTenTial Civil and ScienTifiC appliCaTions Using hydroacoustic stations to monitor large whales: A case study in the South West Indian Ocean by Flore Samaran 40 book reviews 1 CTBTO SPECTRUM 14 | AP R i l 2 0 1 0 e diTorial Tibor TÓTh exeCuTive seCreTary Without a CTBT firmly in place, The Preparatory Commission for it will ultimately not be possible to move the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban forward on other non-proliferation and Treaty Organization (CTBTO) – and I disarmament measures. In May the dare to say other non-proliferation and Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) disarmament bodies – need a deeper Review Conference, an event held every pool from which to draw the experts five years, opens in New York. It gives they require to sustain the credibility the NPT's 189 Member States another of their verification arrangements. opportunity to repeat afresh, and it needs to be part of the final outcome, the The articles in this issue of Spectrum commitment they made in 2000 to bring reflect the wealth of topics related to the the CTBT into early force. CTBT and its verification regime. The A phenomenon occurs when more people President of the Marshall Islands and the ride bicycles or walk a city's streets: there The Treaty's virtue is that the whole Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan both are fewer accidents involving them, is more than the sum of its parts. To touch upon the devastating history of which leads to the hypothesis that there maintain the CTBT and have it flourish nuclear testing and how their countries is safety in numbers. The proposition demands broad political support have benefited from the CTBT. The is well served by the Comprehensive sustained by active participation. Foreign Ministers of Australia and Mexico Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). respectively explain their countries' strong Translated, this means engaging commitment to a CTBT in force. The U.S. Until 1996 when it opened for as many stakeholders as possible, chief negotiator of the CTBT, Stephen signature there had been over 2,000 nuclear stakeholders who have to be provided Ledogar, expands on a number of key tests conducted. Since then there have been with the means to participate on an equal issues from the Treaty negotiations, a handful, all by newcomers and all footing in implementing the Treaty as which continue to be relevant for today's condemned by the UN Security Council. well as benefiting from its civil and debate. On the verification side, themes scientific applications. span from how hydroacoustic data can The numbers speak for themselves: be used to monitor whales and how 182 States have signed the CTBT and 151 More than any other developing countries benefit from have ratified it. The Treaty is approaching international arms control treaty, capacity building activities, to recent universality. It is a matterof fact. the CTBT relies on a unique and developments in data mining and on-site There are few international treaties comprehensive verification regime inspection techniques. and legal agreements that enjoy such driven by science and technology. a commitment of support. The ability of many countries to Let me end by paying tribute to participate in it is limited by its my dear friend and colleague Boris It remains of utmost importance advanced technical nature. This is why Kvok, director of the On-Site Inspection that each and every one of the nine we have embarked on a new initiative (OSI) Division from 2004-2010, who outstanding States takes steps to offering Member States the means to passed away in February. Boris was a ratify the Treaty so that it can enter further develop the capabilities to beloved colleague, leading his division into force and consigns the nuclear have a more active role. The initiative from a conceptual to a more practical testing era to the dustbin of history. will expand on the capacity building approach. He will be greatly missed That is truly my hope. activities that already exist. as a professional as well as a human being, by everyone at the CTBTO and Nevertheless, this waypoint we've We are restructuring training in the wider non-proliferation and reached has been the consequence of activities, consolidating further courses disarmament community of which every single signature, every single and workshops, and increasing our focus Boris was an active member.

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