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The Hunt for Secret Nuclear Tests Digs Up Scientific Gold
http://www.wired.com/2016/01/detecting-nuclear-explosions-science/
The Hunt for Secret Nuclear Tests Digs Up Scientific Gold
Sarah Zhang
01.08.16
When North Korea detonated the bomb that was probably not a hydrogen bomb on Wednesday morning local time, the blast tripped dozens of instruments belonging to the Preparatory Commision for the Comprehensive-Test-Ban Treaty Organization. The Vienna-based organization has a vast global monitoring system to confirm secret (or in North Korea’s case, not-so-secret) nuclear tests.
But the CTBTO is in an odd position these days. It exists to detect and thus deter tests of new nuclear weapons, but its eponymous treaty hasn’t been ratified by key nuclear powers like, well, the United States (that’s why it’s a Preparatory Commission). India hasn’t signed it. Pakistan hasn’t signed it. And, obviously, neither has North Korea. Absent power to enforce the treaty, the commission has to prove its worth in other ways. So it’s courting scientists.
It works because the organization’s 300 monitoring stations around the world collect a lot of data—seismic, infrasound, hydroacoustic, and on radiation. That dataset, 16 GB a day, is a goldmine for researchers in fields as disparate as seismology and whale biology. “Basically we want to use the scientific framework to convince diplomats this is a solid organization with the technological capacity to go beyond the day-to-day monitoring of potential nuclear explosions,” says executive secretary Lassina Zerbo. This year, the commission held its fifth science and technology conference in Vienna, drawing over 1,000 scientists from 104 countries.
<snip>
That openness is unusual in the world of nuclear policy. At first, Zerbo says, it wasn’t easy to convince the commission’s members to share their data. But the massive 2004 South Asian tsunami broke it all open. After the tsunami caught Indian Ocean countries by surprise, the commission began sharing its seismic data for a tsunami warning system. With the data-sharing infrastructure in place, scientists have since used it to map whale migrations, track nuclear fallout from Fukushima, and detect submarine and plane accidents.
<snip>
The Hunt for Secret Nuclear Tests Digs Up Scientific Gold
Sarah Zhang
01.08.16
When North Korea detonated the bomb that was probably not a hydrogen bomb on Wednesday morning local time, the blast tripped dozens of instruments belonging to the Preparatory Commision for the Comprehensive-Test-Ban Treaty Organization. The Vienna-based organization has a vast global monitoring system to confirm secret (or in North Korea’s case, not-so-secret) nuclear tests.
But the CTBTO is in an odd position these days. It exists to detect and thus deter tests of new nuclear weapons, but its eponymous treaty hasn’t been ratified by key nuclear powers like, well, the United States (that’s why it’s a Preparatory Commission). India hasn’t signed it. Pakistan hasn’t signed it. And, obviously, neither has North Korea. Absent power to enforce the treaty, the commission has to prove its worth in other ways. So it’s courting scientists.
It works because the organization’s 300 monitoring stations around the world collect a lot of data—seismic, infrasound, hydroacoustic, and on radiation. That dataset, 16 GB a day, is a goldmine for researchers in fields as disparate as seismology and whale biology. “Basically we want to use the scientific framework to convince diplomats this is a solid organization with the technological capacity to go beyond the day-to-day monitoring of potential nuclear explosions,” says executive secretary Lassina Zerbo. This year, the commission held its fifth science and technology conference in Vienna, drawing over 1,000 scientists from 104 countries.
<snip>
That openness is unusual in the world of nuclear policy. At first, Zerbo says, it wasn’t easy to convince the commission’s members to share their data. But the massive 2004 South Asian tsunami broke it all open. After the tsunami caught Indian Ocean countries by surprise, the commission began sharing its seismic data for a tsunami warning system. With the data-sharing infrastructure in place, scientists have since used it to map whale migrations, track nuclear fallout from Fukushima, and detect submarine and plane accidents.
<snip>