Nuclear test ban data center to open in Minsk

A national data center of the Preparatory Commission of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) will be opened in Minsk on 11 September.

The CTBTO Preparatory Commission concentrates efforts on creating and temporarily managing 337 subjects of an international monitoring system. The system is designed to record and notify in real time about earthquakes, tsunamis, radioactive pollution from nuclear and radiation disasters, and volcano eruptions.

The system is expected to comprise 50 main seismic monitoring stations and 120 auxiliary ones, 11 hydroacoustic stations, 60 infrasound stations, 80 stations to detect radioactive particles created by atmospheric, underground, and underwater explosions. All the stations will submit the data to the international data center in Vienna via a global private data network. All the countries parties to the Treaty will have equal rights and a direct access to all the data.

The national center in Belarus will be in charge of collecting, processing, and submitting the data to the international monitoring system. Results of data processing will be submitted to the Vienna-based center. The opening of the facility will contribute to more active participation of Belarus in the verification regime of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization.

Data of the international monitoring network can be used for scientific purposes to research processes in the Earth’s crust, climate changes, glacier melting and iceberg formation, formation of oceans and seas, the global background radiation levels.

The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization is an international organization that will acquire an official status after the Treaty comes into force. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty will come into force 180 days after it is ratified by 44 countries that have a nuclear reactor or at least nuclear technologies. Since December 2011 the Treaty has been signed by 41 out of the 44 countries while 36 out of the 44 countries have ratified it.