Russian parliament passed a bill to revoke its ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
Relevance: Russia revokes ratification of nuclear test ban treaty (CTBT) - ICAN
But it affirmed that it will retain its cooperation with the treaty’s verification system and implementing organisation.
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty:
The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which opened for signature in 1996, was intended to prohibit all nuclear weapon test explosions. Over 2,000 nuclear tests occurred between 1945 and 1996: the United States (1,000+), the Soviet Union (700+), France (200+), the United Kingdom and China (45 each). As at January 2013, 183 countries had signed the Treaty, of which 158 have also ratified it, including three of the nuclear weapon states (France, the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom). However, 44 specific nuclear technology holder countries must sign and ratify before the CTBT can enter into force. Of these, eight are still missing: China, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and the US. India, North Korea and Pakistan have yet to sign the CTBT. In the case of the US, President Clinton submitted the Treaty to the Senate in September 1997, and in 1999 the Senate voted against the Treaty; President Obama has said his Administration will pursue US CTBT ratification. Three countries have broken the de facto moratorium and tested nuclear weapons since 1996: India and Pakistan in 1998, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in 2006 and 2009. On 7 December 2012, by a vote of 184 for, 1 against (North Korea), and with 3 abstentions, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution urging countries that have not done so to sign and ratify the CTBT.
Key Provision of Treaty:
Scope (Article I): The heart of the treaty is the obligation “not to carry out any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion.” This formulation bars even very low yield tests that some in the nuclear weapon states had wanted, and bars peaceful nuclear explosions that China had wanted, but rejects India’s concern that a CTBT should “leave no loophole for activity, either explosive based or non-explosive based, aimed at the continued development and refinement of nuclear weapons.”
Organization (Article II): The treaty establishes a Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), composed of all member states, to implement the treaty.151 Three groups are under the CTBTO. The Conference of States Parties, composed of a representative from each member state, shall meet in annual and special sessions to consider and decide issues within the scope of the treaty and oversee the work of the other groups. An Executive Council with 51 member states shall, among other things, act on requests for on-site inspection, and may request a special session of the Conference. A Technical Secretariat shall carry out verification functions, including operating an International Data Center (IDC), processing and reporting on data from an International Monitoring System, and receiving and processing requests for on-site inspections.
Verification (Article IV): The treaty establishes a verification regime. It provides for collection and dissemination of information, permits States Party to use national technical means of verification, and specifies verification responsibilities of the Technical Secretariat. It establishes an International Monitoring System (IMS) and provides for on-site inspections.
The treaty calls for the IMS to have, when complete, 321 stations worldwide to monitor signatures that might indicate a nuclear explosion: 170 seismic stations to monitor seismic waves in the Earth; 11 hydroacoustic stations to monitor underwater sound waves; 60 arrays of infrasound detectors to monitor very low frequency sound waves in the atmosphere; and 80 radionuclide stations to detect radioactive particles and (for half the stations) radioactive xenon gas that a nuclear explosion might produce, as well as 16 radionuclide laboratories to analyze radioactive samples.
Article II of the CTBT establishes the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). However, that organization will not come into existence until and unless the treaty enters into force. As an interim measure, on November 29, 1996, states that had signed the treaty adopted a resolution establishing the Preparatory Commission (PrepCom) for the CTBTO “for the purpose of carrying out the necessary preparations for the effective implementation of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, and for preparing for the first session of the Conference of the States Parties to that Treaty.”
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