Arms Control Association

At an April 11 event hosted by the Arms Control Association, Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz (USAF, ret.) urged U.S. ratification of the CTBT. Shaheen noted that ratification of the CTBT will require a great deal of preparation, "But that just means we should start now to chart a path forward for its eventual consideration." Klotz reiterated his support for the CTBT, saying "the logic for moving forward and ahead on ratification of the CTBT is inescapable." He went on to say that the United States already abides by the requirements of the treaty and is unlikely to resume…

The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) announced on April 23 that its International Monitoring System (IMS) detected radioactive isotopes consistent with the February 12North Korean nuclear test and announced the discovery on April 23, 2013. The radionuclide station in Takasaki, Japan detected xenon-131m and xenon-133, two radioactive isotopes that are associated with nuclear fission. The gases detected by the Takasaki station, located approximately 620 miles from the North Korean test site, were produced by a nuclear fission event that occurred at least 50 days before…

The CTBTO has seen a marked increase in its ability to locate and analyze nuclear test explosions since North Korea's first nuclear test in 2006. This is largely a result of an increase in the number of completed monitoring stations in the CTBTO's International Monitoring System (IMS), combined with increasingly larger nuclear explosions by North Korea. The IMS uses a combination of seismic, hydroacoustic, infrasound, and radionuclide stations to detect nuclear test explosions. In October 2006, the IMS was approximately 60% complete, with 99 seismic stations in operation. The organization…

At a March 8 event sponsored by the Partnership for a Secure America, President Reagan’s Secretary of State George Shultz underscored once again his support for U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Shultz’s remarks came in response to a question following his talk at an event organized on Friday, March 8 by the Partnership for a Secure America on Capitol Hill. Shultz was asked for his “personal view on whether the U.S. should ratify the test ban treaty as a way to enhance U.S. security?” Shultz, who served as President Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of State…

The United Nations Security Council passed a unanimous resolution imposing a new round of sanctions on North Korea following the country's February 12 nuclear test explosion. These sanctions are particularly noteworthy because they were drafted by the United States in concert with China, Pyongyang's closest ally and supporter. This is the fourth set of UN sanctions imposed on North Korea since the country's first nuclear test in 2006. The resolution imposes new financial sanctions, which require states to block financial transactions that could contribute to North Korea's weapons programs…

According to a February 26 Global Security Newswire story, the recent North Korean nuclear test "brought fresh attention to the capabilities" of the CTBTO's monitoring system. The CTBTO's International Monitoring System (IMS) was able to detect the North Korean nuclear test within moments and forwarded information from its seismic and infrasound stations to state parties just over an hour after the explosion. The IMS was also able to record the February 15 meteor explosion over the Ural Mountains in Siberia with 17 of its 45 infrasound stations. The IMS currently employs 274 certified…

Ambassador Pickering called for U.S. leadership on the CTBT in a February 20 opinion editorial in The Christian Science Monitor. The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and under secretary of state for political affairs called for the White House to "launch a high-level push for ratifying the treaty" and urged the Senate to provide its advice and consent on the test ban treaty. Pickering pointed out that the United States has not conducted a nuclear test in over 20 years and reiterated the fact that Washington has "no technical or military need to do so ever again." Ambassador…

Sandia National Laboratories recently tested an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), nicknamed "Harvester," for use in detecting nuclear test explosions. The UAV's airborne pods are equipped with radiation sensors and debris samplers, which can track radiation to its source and use particulates and gases to identify the location of a nuclear test explosion, according to a press release from Sandia. Harvester differs from traditional nuclear test monitoring technology in that it actively investigates sources of radiation, as opposed to the immobile monitoring stations used by the United States…

The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) announced this week that the organization is able to detect seismological activity in North Korea "within minutes" of an explosion. Following North Korea's previous nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, the CTBTO was able to determine "within a couple of hours" of each event that they were explosions, not earthquakes. According to Annika Thunborg, a spokeswoman for the CTBTO, it will take the organization several days to verify that the event was a nuclear test explosion, as opposed to an exceptionally large conventional explosion. This…

The Advisory Committee of the Confidentiality of National Defense has approved the declassification of 58 documents related to radiation levels in French Polynesia during and after French nuclear test explosions. France conducted 4 atmospheric and 13 underground nuclear tests in Algeria and 46 atmospheric and 147 underground nuclear tests at the Mururoa and Fangataufa Atolls in the Pacific. French nuclear test veterans have long struggled to obtain compensation from their government for ailments that they believe resulted from exposure to radioactive fallout. Access to the nuclear testing…