Nuclear Test Ban

by Dahlman, Ola; Mykkeltveit, Svein; Haak, Hein; Verhagen, Maxime; Store, Jonas Gahr; Bildt, Carl

• ISBN13: 9781402068836
• ISBN10: 1402068832
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-03-06
• Publisher: Springer Verlag

Summary

The book gives a broad presentation in laymen's language of the creation and the implementation of the treaty prohibiting nuclear test explosions (Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty: CTBT), one of the key guardians against nuclear proliferation. The book gives a unique insight into the challenging international work to establish a complex technical system of global reach in a political environment, provided by those who guided this work for more than 25 years.The book reviews the extensive nuclear testing that has taken place and efforts and arguments to create a test ban. It describes the unprecedented effort at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva by scientists from around the world to form a common understanding on how to verify a test ban treaty and to develop a prototype of a global verification system. This work was also a significant confidence building activity at the height of the cold war. The book gives a brief analysis of the political negotiations and of the Treaty itself. The main part of the book is devoted to efforts over 10 years by the Preparatory Commission for the CTBTO to implement the treaty and its verification system, the most comprehensive ever created with a global system that connects the world with more than 300 monitoring stations and an intrusive on-site inspection regime. The first and most promising testing results are also presented. An essential element of the book is assessments of experiences obtained over the years of a political, managerial and technical nature. Such lessons learned can benefit the negotiations of future international treaties where verification is crucial in the areas of it arms control, disarmament or environment.

Author Biography

About the Author (Content card)

Table of Contents

To Test or Not to Test	p. 1
Testing History - More than 2000 Nuclear Explosions	p. 2
China	p. 3
France	p. 4
India	p. 5
North Korea	p. 5
Pakistan	p. 5
Soviet Union	p. 6
United Kingdom	p. 6
USA	p. 7
Nuclear Weapons - With and Without Testing	p. 9
Why Testing?	p. 9
Global Nuclear Capabilities	p. 10
Nuclear Weapons Without Testing	p. 11
Why a Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty?	p. 14
Related Nuclear Arms Control and Disarmament Treaties	p. 15
What Is a Nuclear Device?	p. 18
Monitoring Technologies	p. 25
Nuclear Explosions - Detectable Features	p. 25
Detection, Location and Identification	p. 26
Detection	p. 27
Event Location	p. 30
Event Identification	p. 32
New Developments	p. 34
Seismological Monitoring	p. 35
Seismology and Earthquakes	p. 35
Seismic Waves and Wave Propagation	p. 38
Seismological Stations and Networks	p. 39
Seismology and Nuclear Explosions	p. 40
Hydroacoustic Monitoring	p. 42
The SOFAR Channel	p. 42
Detecting the Signals	p. 43
Locating Events	p. 43
What do We Observe?	p. 44
Infrasound Monitoring	p. 44
What Is Infrasound?	p. 44
Detecting Signals	p. 45
Radionuclide Monitoring	p. 47
Particles and Noble Gases	p. 47
Particle Detection at CTBT Monitoring Stations	p. 48
Detection of Noble Gases at CTBT Monitoring Stations	p. 49
Tracking the Source	p. 50
Detection from Space	p. 50
Enabling Technologies	p. 52
Computer Hardware and Software	p. 52
Communications	p. 53
Satellite Observations	p. 53
Revolution in Information Analysis	p. 54
Array Stations	p. 55
A Long Journey to a Treaty	p. 59
Past Test Ban Initiatives	p. 59
First Efforts	p. 60
The Five	p. 60
The Trilaterals	p. 61
The Partial Test Ban Treaty	p. 62
The Threshold Test Ban Treaty	p. 63
Group of Scientific Experts	p. 64
The Initial Design	p. 65
The First GSE Test	p. 66
The Second Test - Moving into the Digital Era	p. 66
GSETT-3: Approaching a Verification System	p. 67
GSE - Successful Preparatory Work	p. 68
The CTBT Negotiations 1994-96	p. 69
Starting the Negotiations	p. 71
1995 - Waiting in the Hallway	p. 72
1996 - The Endgame	p. 73
Critical Issues During the Negotiations	p. 74
The Preamble	p. 74
The Organization	p. 75
Verification	p. 75
Entry into Force (EIF)	p. 77
Reflections on the Negotiations	p. 77
GSE a Tool to Get Prepared	p. 78
CD a Bottleneck?	p. 79
The Treaty	p. 83
The Preamble	p. 83
Basic Obligations	p. 84
The Organization	p. 85
The Conference	p. 85
The Executive Council	p. 86
The Technical Secretariat	p. 87
Verification	p. 87
The International Monitoring System	p. 87
Consultation and Clarification	p. 89
On-Site Inspections	p. 90
Confidence-Building Measures	p. 91
National Implementation Measures	p. 91
Entry into Force	p. 92
Reflections	p. 93
Politically Significant	p. 93
The Executive Council	p. 94
The Role of CTBTO and States Parties	p. 95
An Unprecedented Verification Regime	p. 96
Verification, Too Little or Too Much?	p. 97
The Birth of An Organization	p. 99
The Mandate of the CTBTO Preparatory Commission	p. 99
Preparations for the First Session of the CTBTO Preparatory Commission	p. 101
The First Session of the CTBTO Preparatory Commission	p. 102
The Initial Enthusiasm	p. 106
The Early Challenges	p. 108
Establishing the Verification Regime	p. 113
A Complex Monitoring System in a Political Environment	p. 113
Building the Monitoring System - A Gradual but Slow Process	p. 127
Political, Cost and Capacity Factors	p. 127
Technical and Administrative Aspects	p. 129
IMS and IDC Status Overview	p. 131
Some Specific IMS Issues	p. 133
Station Specifications and Certification Procedures	p. 133
Auxiliary Seismic Stations	p. 134
Infrasound Stations	p. 136
Noble Gas Stations	p. 136
Cooperating National Facilities	p. 137
IMS Station Coordinates	p. 137
On-Site Inspections a Politicized Issue on a Slow Path	p. 138
Testing Shows High Performance	p. 143
From Building to Testing	p. 143
Mode of Operation of the Global Monitoring System	p. 143
Global Tests Show High Performance of IMS/IDC	p. 146
Technology Works	p. 146
Monitoring Capabilities Foreseen During the CTBT Negotiations	p. 146
Current Capabilities and Projections for the Completed System	p. 150
Tests of the Monitoring System Provided by Nuclear and Other Explosions	p. 161
Assessment of Eventual IMS/IDC Capabilities; Room for Further Improvements	p. 166
Exercises Also Get OSI on the Move	p. 169
National Technical Implementation of the CTBT	p. 173
National Commitments	p. 173
National Institutions Play Key Roles in the Global Verification System	p. 174
Basis for National Interpretation	p. 176
Regional Cooperation	p. 178
An Assessment of the Status of National Technical Implementation	p. 180
The CTBTO Preparatory Commission and the PTS - an Organizational Perspective	p. 183
The Policy Making Organs	p. 183
The Structure of the Policy Making Organs	p. 183
The PrepCom Plenary Body	p. 185
The Working Groups	p. 186
Executive Secretary's Two Faces	p. 187
How did it Work Out?	p. 188
Provisional Technical Secretariat (PTS)	p. 189
The First Step	p. 190
A "Family" Turning into an Organization	p. 191
Evaluations Push for Better Coordination	p. 191
Rules and Regulations	p. 193
Staffing and the Seven-Year Service Limit	p. 195
Changing the Guard	p. 197
Reorganizing the PTS	p. 198
The CTBTO Preparatory Commission and the World	p. 201
States Signatories, the CTBTO Preparatory Commission and the PTS	p. 202
States are the Masters of Implementation	p. 202
States are Providing - and Getting - Money	p. 203
States Provide the Personnel to the PTS	p. 206
States are PTS Customers	p. 210
States are the Hosts of Monitoring Stations and Radionuclide Laboratories	p. 210
The CTBTO Preparatory Commission and International Organizations	p. 211
Organizations in Vienna	p. 211
International Humanitarian Organizations	p. 212
Other International Organizations and Civil Applications	p. 213
Synergy with Science	p. 215
The CTBT - Hostage to Today's Politics	p. 220
Always Too Early to Give Up	p. 223
Finally a CTBT - and Then? A Political Perspective	p. 224
Most Complex Verification System Ever - a Scientific Perspective	p. 227
Challenge to Establish a Technical Organization in a Political-Environment - a Managerial Perspective	p. 229
Bringing the CTBT Back on Track	p. 232
A New Security Agenda	p. 235
Science in Support of Security	p. 236
Invest in Security	p. 237
	p. 239
Primary Seismic Stations	p. 239
Auxiliary Seismic Stations	p. 241
Radionuclide Stations	p. 244
Radionuclide Laboratories	p. 248
Hydroacoustic Stations	p. 248
Infrasound Stations	p. 249
	p. 253
Chairpersons of the CTBTO Preparatory Commission	p. 253
Executive Secretaries of the CTBTO Preparatory Commission	p. 254
Chairpersons of Working Group A	p. 254
Focal Points and Friends of the Chair of Working Group A	p. 254
Chairpersons of Working Group B	p. 255
Friends of the Chair of Working Group B	p. 255
Program Coordinators of Working Group B	p. 255
Task Leaders of Working Group B	p. 256
Abbreviations and Acronyms	p. 259
References	p. 263
Name Index	p. 271
Subject Index	p. 273
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