CTBTO Newsroom

Posted by: ctbtonewsroom | December 8, 2015

North Korea test site activity could be bluff, nuclear ban monitor says (Reuters)

Lassina Zerbo, head of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO), stands next to a window that overlooks the downtown of Seoul as he poses for photographs during an interview with Reuters at a hotel in Seoul, South Korea, December 7, 2015.

Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji

Heightened activity at a North Korean nuclear test site could be a bluff rather than preparations to set off an atomic device soon, the head of an international body set up to monitor a ban on nuclear testing said on Monday.

A report by 38 North, a North Korea project at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, said satellite images showed construction of a test tunnel at Punggye-ri, on North Korea’s east coast where it conducted its three previous nuclear tests.

“I’m tempted to believe that the fourth tunnel is just a bluff to put pressure on the international community to resume discussion with them,” Lassina Zerbo, head of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO), told Reuters.

North Korea has conducted three underground nuclear tests since 2006.

The last, in 2013, drew international condemnation including from China, its main diplomatic ally. Isolated North Korea is under U.N. sanctions that prohibit trade that can fund its arms program.

Diplomatic talks amongst six countries including the United States and North Korea aimed at ending its nuclear program produced a deal in 2005 from which the North has since walked away.

North Korea has been steadily working on its nuclear program, but a fourth test is not seen as imminent.

While a new tunnel at the site could well indicate North Korea was preparing a test, the timing would “probably depend on political factors more than technical ones”, said Jeffrey Lewis, author of the 38 North report.

The North’s agreement with South Korea in August to work toward easing tension and improving ties also meant a test was less likely, said Zerbo.

“One would not anticipate that North Korea would go for new testing at a time when they are engaged in discussions with their brothers from the South,” Zerbo said.

“In the 21st century, they are the only country to have conducted a nuclear test explosion. In the 21st century, the world is too civilized for anyone to resume testing”.

More than 160 countries have ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty since 1996.

India and Pakistan have also conducted nuclear tests since then and are among eight countries including the United States and China preventing the treaty’s entry into force.

Original article: Reuters

Using IMS data for climate studies

Detection of an airburst over Thailand in September 2015 In the process of scanning the globe around the clock for signs of nuclear explosions in violation of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), the stations of the CTBTO’s International Monitoring System (IMS) pick up signals from an abundance of natural events. These data are widely considered to be unique and a treasure trove of knowledge with a broad range of civil and scientific applications.

The IMS captures four types of data: seismic, hydroacoustic, infrasound, and radionuclide. The network (interactive map) is about 90 percent complete, with some 300 monitoring facilities installed and operational.

Scientists and institutions in all 183 CTBTO Member States can also use the data for disaster warning and scientific studies including in the field of climate change. The data can also be accessed via the Virtual Data Exploitation Centre. Following the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Member States decided to make IMS data available to tsunami warning centres.

ES Lassina Zerbo visits U.S. nuclear labs and former Nevada Test Site

Executive Secretary Lassina Zerbo (right) and LLNL Director Bill Goldstein At the invitation of the U.S. government, CTBTO Executive Lassina Zerbo is currently visiting the U.S. nuclear labs, the Nevada National Security Site (formerly Nevada Test Site) as well as Stanford University and the Monterey Institute of International Studies from 19 to 26 November 2015.

The LLNL-developed ‘smart sampler’ to extract radioactive noble gases during on-site inspections

During his visit to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Zerbo was welcomed by LLNL Director William H. Goldstein and viewed the laboratory’s contributions to CTBT verification, such as device for detecting radioactivity during on-site inspections and innovative seismic monitoring techniques.

With California’s Governor Jerry Brown While in California, he met with the State’s Governor Jerry Brown to discuss cooperation on raising awareness for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). The State of California is host to the 4 of the 38 International Monitoring System facilities hosted by the United States.

In Nevada, Zerbo visited the National Atomic Testing Museum and toured the Nevada National Security Site, where he viewed the crater from the 1962 Sedan nuclear test and the tower of the cancelled 1992 Icecap nuclear test.

At the Sedan crater with NNSA Deputy Administrator Anne Harrington

“It is a sobering thing to visit a place where so many nuclear explosions were conducted, and I appreciate this tremendous opportunity. I applaud the United States for foregoing nuclear explosive testing for over 23 years and I hope that will continue, along with the U.S. support for our efforts to make a global ban on nuclear explosions the international norm. I was greatly impressed by what I saw in Nevada, and it has given me a renewed motivation to make nuclear explosions a thing of the past for all nations.”

Executive Secretary Zerbo about the work of the U.S. labs in support of the CTBT

During his visit to the United States, Zerbo also visited Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. In California, he met former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz at Stanford University and former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry. Perry is also a member of the CTBT Group of Eminent Persons (GEM).

“It is our privilege to invite Dr Zerbo to visit the Nevada National Security Site. We thought it was important for him to visit the place where the United States did so many of its nuclear weapons explosive tests; to see not only the environment but to also feel a little bit that history and to understand why it is so important both for the CTBTO and the United States that we never test again.”

Anne Harrington, Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation, Nionaatl Nuclear Security Administration

With former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz.

“The CTBT is one of the most important Treaties around. The justification for a yes vote is more powerful today…You can point to a verification system & say it worksIt seems like a ‘no-brainer’ to ratify this Treaty.”

Former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz

Terry Wallace welcoming Zerbo to Los Alamos Laboratory

“In 1996, I was the lead author on a position statement from the two largest professional societies that include seismology (AGU and SSA) on the verifiability of a CTBT. To be able to see the CTBTO stand-up in 20 years and do such a marvelous job is quite an achievement.”

Terry Wallace, Senior Manager at Los Alamos National Laboratory