Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

North Korea detonated a nuclear device on October 9, 2006. (a) A map of the region shows the location of the test (red star), nearby earthquakes (blue dots), and seismic monitoring stations (white triangles) at Mudanjiang in northeast China and Taejon, South Korea. (b) Seismograms recorded during the explosion (red wave) and a recent earthquake (blue wave) near that experiment show distinct P and S seismic waves for the earthquake, but not for the nuclear test (S&TR).

One more entry from Science & Technology Review, a publication of Lawrence Livermore Labs, which has an article on seismic verification of nuclear testing in its latest edition, although not late enough to mention the latest nuclear test of North Korea.

Monitoring the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

"The U.S. ceased nuclear testing in 1992 in anticipation of the acceptance of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). In 1996, President Bill Clinton and many other heads of state signed this multilateral treaty to prohibit all nuclear testing. Although most signatory countries ratified the treaty, the U.S. did not, and several countries required for the treaty to enter into force did not sign it. Expectations are high that the administration of President Barack Obama will reevaluate the CTBT’s role in nonproliferation policy.

"Although the CTBT is not in force, signatory countries and the U.S. are active participants in the International Monitoring System, which is overseen by the International Data Centre in Vienna, Austria, an organization established specifically to verify the CTBT. Every country supporting the system has a national data center. Livermore provides research and development support to the U.S. National Data Center at Patrick Air Force Base in Florida, which is responsible for U.S. nuclear test monitoring and international treaty verification.

"The International Monitoring System comprises a worldwide network of 337 sensitive monitoring stations and laboratories to detect nuclear explosions. Seismic stations anchored to bedrock record underground elastic waves, infrasound stations collect acoustograms from low-frequency sound waves aboveground, hydroacoustic stations in the oceans record underwater sound waves, and radionuclide stations measure airborne radioactive gases or particles. More than 230 of the recording systems now send data to the International Data Centre on a provisional basis. This unique network is designed to detect nuclear explosions anywhere on the planet—in the oceans, underground, or in the atmosphere.

"After the treaty enters into force, the signatory countries will have the role of identifying an event as a violation. The treaty also specifies several ways to resolve concerns about suspicious events, from consultation and clarification through a protocol that could lead to on-site inspections."