Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization

Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) is a multilateral treaty.
It was formed by the states who agree to ban all nuclear explosions in all environments, for military or civilian needs.
The United Nations General Assembly was adopted it on 10 September 1996.
Yet it has not gone into force because of the non-endorsement of eight specific states.

Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization History

Approximately 2000 atomic tests have been done the world in different areas to till date.
United States was conducted the first nuclear explosive test at White Sands Missile Range near Alamogordo, New Mexico on 31 December 1953.
Between 16 July 1945 and 31 December 1996 above 50 atomic blasts were listed.

CTBTO Main Points

The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO)
IT works to bans nuclear explosions by everyone, everywhere: in the atmosphere, on the Earth’s surface, underwater and underground.

CTBTO importance 
CTBTO tries to prevent the countries to develop the atomic bombs for the first time or the countries which are already having nuclear bombs to prepare bombs which are more powerful.
CTBTO tries to stop the destruction caused by the radiation from atomic bombs explosions to human beings, plants and animals on the earth.
Total Nuclear tests carried out between 1945 and 1996.

In 1996 CTBTO opened the signature. By the time total nuclear tests held by different countries are
*United States-1000+
*Soviet Union-700+
*France-200+
*United Kingdom-45
*China-45

Note:
[highlight]In these countries three are broken the de facto moratorium and performed nuclear tests since 1996: They are [/highlight]
India and Pakistan in 1998
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (PRK) in the year 2006, 2009 and 2013

CTBTO almost universal but has yet to become law
During the Cold War many attempts were made to negotiate a comprehensive test ban.
But in the year 1990 only it became reality.
In Geneva The CTBTO was negotiated between 1994 and 1996.
183 countries signed.
163 ratified (Sep 2014) including 3 atomic weapon states, France, Russian Federation, UK.
But 44 specific countries which are nuclear tech holder must sign and ratify before the CTBTO can enter into force.

Of these, 8 countries are still missing. They Are:
China
Egypt
India
Iran
Israel
North Korea
Pakistan and the USA
India, North Korea and Pakistan have yet to sign the CTBTO.
The last Annex 2 State to ratify the Treaty was Indonesia on 6 February 2012.

Headquarters in Vienna
Since the Treaty is not yet in force, the organization is called the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). It was founded in 1996, has over 260 staff from over 70 countries, and is based in Vienna. It is headed by the Executive Secretary, Lassina Zerbo from Burkina Faso. The CTBTO’s main tasks are the promotion of the Treaty and the build-up of the verification regime so that it is operational when the Treaty enters into force. The annual budget is around US$130,000,000 or €102,000,000.

CTBTO’s Headquarters in Vienna

This Treaty not yet in force. Since it called the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO).
Founded in 1996 with 260 staff from 70 countries.
Headquarters at Vienna.
Executive Secretary, Lassina Zerbo from Burkina Faso.

The CTBTO’s important tasks

The promotion of the Treaty
The build-up of the verification regime so that it is operational when the Treaty enters into force.

Verification regime to make sure that no nuclear explosion goes undetected
The Global Alarm System.
The CTBTO has comprehensive verification system to detect nuclear explosions. This regime consists of three pillars:
[highlight]The International Monitoring System (IMS)
It has 337 facilities in the world to detect signs of nuclear explosions.
Above 85% of the facilities are already in running.[/highlight]

The IMS uses the following 4 state-of-the-art technologies

1. Seismic:
50 primary and 120 auxiliary seismic stations monitor shockwaves in the Earth.
These stations detect the nuclear explosions.
The shockwaves are many thousands every year – these are because of earthquakes.
In the years 2006, 2009 and 2013 North Korean nuclear tests are also detected.

2. Hydro acoustic
11 hydro acoustic stations are working to “listen” sound waves in the world wide oceans.
Explosion Sound waves can travel extremely far underwater.

3. Infrasound
There are around 60 stations on the surface can detect ultra-low frequency sound waves.

4. Radionuclide
80 stations measure the radioactive particles in atmosphere.
In these 40 stations can also pick up noble gas.

Helping Tsunami Warning and the Environment

IMS can provide tsunami warning centers In March 2011 Fukushima power plant incident the network’s radionuclide stations tracked the dispersion of radioactivity on a global scale.
The data could also help us better understand the oceans, climate change, volcanoes, whale’s movements, and many other problems.

The International Data Centre

At the CTBTO’s headquarters in Vienna, the International Data Centre gets gigabytes of data from the global monitoring stations.
This data processed and distributed to the CTBTO’s Member States.
In 2006, 2009 and 2013 North Korea tested, by the time Member States received information about the location, magnitude, time and depth of the nuclear tests within 2 hours. This was done before the actual test had been announced by North Korea.