Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

Background

Efforts over a 50-year period to limit and ultimately ban nuclear testing led in 1996 to the signing of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). The Partial Test Ban Treaty from 1963, which banned nuclear tests in the atmosphere, underwater and in space, and the Threshold Test Ban Treaty from 1974, which limited the yield of underground tests to 150 kilotons, represented significant steps towards achievement of the CTBT.

The CTBT was negotiated in the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva and adopted by the UN General Assembly. As of April 2008, the CTBT has been signed by 178 States and ratified by 144 of these. The CTBT will enter into force when it has been ratified by 44 States listed in the Treaty. Of these, 35 States have ratified the Treaty as of April 2008.

The CTBT bans all nuclear explosions in all environments. An extensive verification regime is prescribed in the Treaty. This regime consists of the following elements: an International Monitoring System (IMS) with an International Data Center (IDC), provisions for consultation and clarification, on-site inspections, and confidence-building measures. The IMS comprises altogether 321 stations for seismological monitoring, hydroacoustic monitoring, infrasound monitoring and radionuclide monitoring. The radionuclide stations are supported by 16 radionuclide laboratories in the analysis of samples. The global distribution of these 337 facilities is show in the map below. Data from IMS stations are transmitted to the IDC using a purpose-built global communications infrastructure. The IDC provides States Signatories with results from its analysis of IMS data.

The verification regime of the CTBT is being established by the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Test-Ban-Treaty Organization. The Preparatory Commission took up work in Vienna, Austria in 1997, and is composed of policy-making organs for representatives of the States Signatories, and a Provisional Technical Secretariat (PTS) with approximately 250 employees. The budget of the Preparatory Commission for 2008 is approximately $ 110 million. Activities of the Preparatory Commission are funded through scaled annual dues paid by the States Signatories.

CTBT and NORSAR

Norway ratified the CTBT in 1999. At the same time, Norwegian authorities designated NORSAR as the Norwegian National Data Centre for CTBT-related matters. On behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway, NORSAR attends to a range of technical tasks and functions related to Norway’s obligations vis-à-vis the Preparatory Commission. Moreover, activities at NORSAR support various national functions of technical nature in relation to the CTBT. The primary tasks and functions are as follows:

• In cooperation with the Preparatory Commission, NORSAR facilitates the establishment of IMS stations on Norwegian territory and provides for their operation and maintenance. NORSAR provides for timely transmission of data from IMS stations on Norwegian territory to the IDC in Vienna.
• NORSAR advises Norwegian authorities on the nature of events detected and located by the IDC. This task is a national matter, as the PTS (and the Technical Secretariat, following entry into force of the Treaty) is not providing assessments of events in relation to Treaty compliance.
• NORSAR supports Norwegian authorities in technical discussions in meetings of policy-making organs of the Preparatory Commission. Since 1997, NORSAR employees have assumed leading roles in organizing the work in the Preparatory Commission’s working group for verification.