Download or read book Technical Issues in the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty CTBT Ratification Debate written by Anna Péczeli and published by . This book was released on 2020-09-30 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two decades after the U.S. Senate declined in 1999 to give its consent to ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), the treaty remains in legal and political limbo. The 1999 ratification debate addressed a large number of issues. Rejection was driven by various policy and technical judgments. The treaty's future, whatever it might be, will be determined in part by how much perspectives might have changed in light of interim developments. Our purpose was to shed light on some of those developments and to assess their relevance. This technical re-examination begins with a short background section to introduce the key technical matters in discussion in the U.S. ratification process. Then it moves systematically through each of those topics with a review of relevant background information, a discussion of key points in debate, an analysis of subsequent experience, and a current assessment.
Download or read book Technical Issues Related to the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty written by National Academy of Sciences and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2002-08-01 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing upon the considerable existing body of technical material related to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the National Academy of Sciences reviewed and assessed the key technical issues that arose during the Senate debate over treaty ratification. In particular, these include: (1) the capacity of the United States to maintain confidence in the safety and reliability of its nuclear stockpile in the absence of nuclear testing; (2) the nuclear-test detection capabilities of the international monitoring system (with and without augmentation by national systems and instrumentation in use for scientific purposes, and taking into account the possibilities for decoupling nuclear explosions from surrounding geologic media); and (3) the additions to their nuclear-weapons capabilities that other countries could achieve through nuclear testing at yield levels that might escape detection, and the effect of such additions on the security of the United States.
Download or read book Key Issues in the Emerging U S Debate on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty written by and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 59 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thesis analyzes both sides of the U.S. debate concerning the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which was rejected by the U.S. Senate in 1999, and which has attracted renewed interest under the Barack Obama administration. Significant events in international politics have changed the prospects of nuclear proliferation since 1999. Scientists and engineers have improved methods for verifying treaty compliance and ensuring the safety and reliability of U.S. nuclear weapons. Proponents of the CTBT continue to view it as crucial to nuclear non-proliferation efforts and effectively verifiable with minimal effects on the U.S. strategic deterrence posture. Meanwhile, skeptics regarding the treaty continue to view it as unverifiable and/or unenforceable and detrimental to U.S. strategic deterrence and non-proliferation efforts. Technical advancements alone are not likely to sway the opinions of senators who voted against CTBT ratification in 1999. If President Obama wishes to pursue CTBT ratification as he has stated, his administration will need to gain bipartisan support by compromising on some issues and establishing safeguards against the risks of the treaty.
Download or read book The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2012-04-29 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report reviews and updates the 2002 National Research Council report, Technical Issues Related to the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). This report also assesses various topics, including: the plans to maintain the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile without nuclear-explosion testing; the U.S. capability to detect, locate, and identify nuclear explosions; commitments necessary to sustain the stockpile and the U.S. and international monitoring systems; and potential technical advances countries could achieve through evasive testing and unconstrained testing. Sustaining these technical capabilities will require action by the National Nuclear Security Administration, with the support of others, on a strong scientific and engineering base maintained through a continuing dynamic of experiments linked with analysis, a vigorous surveillance program, adequate ratio of performance margins to uncertainties. This report also emphasizes the use of modernized production facilities and a competent and capable workforce with a broad base of nuclear security expertise.
Download or read book Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty written by Jonathan Medalia and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2009-12 with total page 37 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contents: (1) History of the Safeguards; (2) Deconstructing the Safeguards: (3) Reconstructing the Safeguards; (4) Implementing the Safeguards: Has past implementation been adequate?; Would revised Safeguards be effectively implemented?; Issues for implementation; (5) Nuclear Disarmament, Nuclear Nonproliferation, CTBT Ratification, and Revised Safeguards. Appendixes: Appendix A. Development of the Safeguards; Appendix B. Recommendations by General John Shalikashvili (USA, ret.), 2001; Appendix C. Letter and Memorandum from Senators Kyl, Domenici, and Sessions, 2008; Appendix D. Recommendations by the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the U.S., 2009.
Download or read book Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Background and Current Developments written by and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2008 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty (CTBT) is the oldest item on the nuclear arms control agenda. Three treaties currently bar all but underground tests with a maximum force equal to 150,000 tons of TNT. Since 1997, the United States has held 23 "subcritical experiments" at the Nevada Test Site to study how plutonium behaves under pressures generated by explosives. It asserts these experiments do not violate the CTBT because they cannot produce a self-sustaining chain reaction. Russia reportedly held some since 1998. The U.N. General Assembly adopted the CTBT in 1996. As of January 23, 2009, 180 states had signed it; 148, including Russia, had ratified. Of the 44 that must ratify the treaty for it to enter into force, 41 had signed and 35 had ratified. Five conferences have been held to facilitate entry into force, most recently in 2007. In 1997, President Clinton sent the CTBT to the Senate. In October 1999, the Senate rejected it, 48 for, 51 against, 1 present. It is on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's calendar. It would require a two-thirds Senate vote to send the treaty back to the President for disposal or to give advice and consent for ratification. The Obama Administration plans to seek Senate approval of the CTBT, followed by a diplomatic effort to secure ratification by the remaining states that must ratify for the treaty to enter into force.
Download or read book Banning the Bang or the Bomb written by Mordechai Melamud and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-04-17 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), negotiated between 1994 and 1996, is the latest development in the nuclear arms control regime. It continues to serve a vital role in preserving the privileged status of the nuclear weapons states and barring the way to proliferation. Banning the Bang or the Bomb? brings together a team of leading international experts who together analyse its negotiation as a model of regime creation, examining collective dynamics, the behaviour of individual countries, and the nature of specific issues. The book offers practical guidance and training for members of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization future inspectorate to help negotiate their way during an on-site inspection (OSI) in an inspected state. This is a valuable resource for researchers and professionals alike that turns an analysis of what has happened into a manual for what is about to happen.
Download or read book Comprehensive Nuclear Test ban Treaty ctbt written by Ed. K.R. Gupta and published by Atlantic Publishers & Dist. This book was released on 1999 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There Has Been A Lively Debate, For The Last Three Years, On The Question Whether Or Nor India Should Sign The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty [Ctbt]. In Spite Of Great Importance Of The Subject For National Security, The Full Text Of Ctbt Is Not Easily Available. The Present Book Fulfills This Gap. This Will Enable The Experts And The Common Man To Have Better Understanding Of The On-Going Debate On The Subject. The Editor Contends That India Should Not Sign Such A Discriminatory And Inequitable Treaty. Signing Of Such A Treaty Would Hinder India S Efforts To Safeguard Its Security.It Is Hoped That The Book Would Be Of Great Value To The Researchers And Students Of Defence Studies, Parliamentarians, Senior Executives Concerned With Defence And The Common Readers.
Download or read book Nuclear Test Ban written by Ola Dahlman and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-04-21 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nuclear tests have caused public concern ever since the first such test was conducted, more than six decades ago. During the Cold War, however, con- tions were not conducive to discussing a complete ban on nuclear testing. It was not until 1993 that negotiations on such a treaty finally got under way. From then on, things moved relatively quickly: in 1996, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). To date, the Treaty has been signed by 178 states and ratified by 144, though it has yet to enter into force, as nine out of 44 ‘‘Annex 2 states’’, whose ratification is mandatory, have not heeded the call. Nevertheless, the CTBT verification system is already provisionally operational and has proven its effectiveness. We commend the CTBT organisation in Vienna for its successful efforts to build a verification network. This book is an excellent overview of the evolution of the CTBT and its verification regime. The authors are eminent scholars from the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden who have been intimately involved with the CTBT and its verification agency, the CTBTO Preparatory Commission, from their inc- tion to the present day. They have written a thorough and engaging narrative of the long road that led to the CTBT. Their story will appeal to both the layman and the expert and provide useful lessons for future negotiations on disarmament issues.
Download or read book Research Required to Support Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Monitoring written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1997-08-01 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On September 24, 1996, President Clinton signed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty at the United Nations Headquarters. Over the next five months, 141 nations, including the four other nuclear weapon statesâ€"Russia, China, France, and the United Kingdomâ€"added their signatures to this total ban on nuclear explosions. To help achieve verification of compliance with its provisions, the treaty specifies an extensive International Monitoring System of seismic, hydroacoustic, infrasonic, and radionuclide sensors. This volume identifies specific research activities that will be needed if the United States is to effectively monitor compliance with the treaty provisions.
Download or read book The Nuclear Ban Treaty written by Ramesh Thakur and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-12-21 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The contributors to this book describe, discuss, and evaluate the normative reframing brought about by the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (the Ban Treaty), taking you on a journey through its genesis and negotiation history to the shape of the emerging global nuclear order. Adopted by the United Nations on 7 July 2017, the Ban Treaty came into effect on 22 January 2021. For advocates and supporters, weapons that were always immoral are now also illegal. To critics, it represents a profound threat to the stability of the existing global nuclear order with the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty as the normative anchor. As the most significant leap in nuclear disarmament in fifty years and a rare case study of successful state-civil society partnership in multilateral diplomacy, the Ban Treaty challenges the established order. The book’s contributors are leading experts on the Ban Treaty, including senior scholars, policymakers and civil society activists. A vital guide to the Ban Treaty for students of nuclear disarmament, arms control and diplomacy as well as for policymakers in those fields.
Download or read book Monitoring Compliance with the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty CTBT written by Christoph Pilger and published by . This book was released on 2017-10-27 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) is dedicated to banning nuclear explosions worldwide. It was negotiated and adopted by the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva to comprehensively prohibit nuclear testing underground, underwater, and in the atmosphere. It was opened for signature in 1996 and will enter into force as soon as all 44 nuclear technology holder countries, as denoted in Annex 2 to the Treaty, will have signed and ratified it. Germany signed the CTBT in 1996 and ratified it in 1998, thereby committing to establish a National Data Center (NDC) and to install, operate, and maintain five stations of the International Monitoring System (IMS) for monitoring the compliances with the Treaty. Contributions on various CTBT related topics by authors from the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources in Hannover (Bundesanstalt f�r Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe, BGR), which has been mandated by Germany as the NDC, are presented in this book. Studies on institutional, technical and scientific aspects in the CTBT context are described to highlight recent, current and future work at the German NDC and to contribute to the CTBT monitoring and verification tasks. Nevertheless, this book focuses primarily on those aspects of the verification regime where BGR has expertise as well as BGR's activities and responsibilities as the German NDC and an IMS station operator during the last twenty years. An overview of the CTBT history, verification, and implementation in Germany is provided together with a description of the five German IMS stations and the seismology, infrasound, hydroacoustic and radionuclide technologies. Studies on the global performance of the IMS technologies to detect, locate, and identify nuclear and non-nuclear events are presented, as well as various case studies on the application, testing and benchmarking of these technologies. These case studies include, in particular, the North Korean nuclear weapon tests from 2006 to 2016, but also the National Data Center preparedness exercises from 2007 to 2013, the Tohoku earthquake with tsunami and Fukushima reactor accident in 2011, and the Chelyabinsk meteoroid explosion in 2013. Further studies are related to considerations on the quality of CTBT International Data Center waveform products, and to the usefulness and potential of satellite remote sensing in CTBT context as a National Technical Means (NTM). Finally, the role of On-Site Inspection (OSI) in general and, specifically, Seismic Aftershock Monitoring Systems (SAMS) are discussed for investigating potential treaty violations as the ultimate step in the verification chain.
Download or read book Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Background and Current Developments written by and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A ban on all nuclear tests is the oldest item on the nuclear arms control agenda. Three treaties that entered into force between 1963 and 1990 limit but do not ban such tests. In 1996, the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which would ban all nuclear explosions. In 1997, President Clinton sent the CTBT to the Senate, which rejected it in October 1999. In a speech in Prague in April 2009, President Obama said, "My administration will immediately and aggressively pursue U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty." However, the Administration has focused its efforts in 2010 on securing Senate advice and consent to ratification of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START). There have been no hearings on CTBT in the 111th Congress, and it appears unlikely to be brought up in the lame duck session. As of December 2010, 182 states had signed the CTBT and 153, including Russia, had ratified it. However, entry into force requires ratification by 44 states specified in the treaty, of which 41 had signed the treaty and 35 had ratified. Five conferences have been held to facilitate entry into force, most recently in 2009.
Download or read book Silencing the Bomb written by Lynn R. Sykes and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2017-12-12 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In December 2016, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved their iconic “Doomsday Clock” thirty seconds forward to two and a half minutes to midnight, the latest it has been set since 1952, the year of the first United States hydrogen bomb test. But a group of scientists—geologists, engineers, and physicists—has been fighting to turn back the clock. Since the dawn of the Cold War, they have advocated a halt to nuclear testing, their work culminating in the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which still awaits ratification from China, Iran, North Korea—and the United States. The backbone of the treaty is every nation’s ability to independently monitor the nuclear activity of the others. The noted seismologist Lynn R. Sykes, one of the central figures in the development of the science and technology used in monitoring, has dedicated his career to halting nuclear testing. In Silencing the Bomb, he tells the inside story behind scientists’ quest for disarmament. Called upon time and again to testify before Congress and to inform the public, Sykes and his colleagues were, for much of the Cold War, among the only people on earth able to say with certainty when and where a bomb was tested and how large it was. Methods of measuring earthquakes, researchers realized, could also detect underground nuclear explosions. When politicians on both sides of the Iron Curtain attempted to sidestep disarmament or test ban treaties, Sykes was able to deploy the nascent science of plate tectonics to reveal the truth. Seismologists’ discoveries helped bring about treaties limiting nuclear testing, but it was their activism that played a key role in the effort for peace. Full of intrigue, international politics, and hard science used for the global good, Silencing the Bomb is a timely and necessary chronicle of one scientist’s efforts to keep the clock from striking midnight.
Download or read book Winning and Losing the Nuclear Peace written by Michael Krepon and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive guide to the history of nuclear arms control by a wise eavesdropper and masterful storyteller, Michael Krepon. The greatest unacknowledged diplomatic achievement of the Cold War was the absence of mushroom clouds. Deterrence alone was too dangerous to succeed; it needed arms control to prevent nuclear warfare. So, U.S. and Soviet leaders ventured into the unknown to devise guardrails for nuclear arms control and to treat the Bomb differently than other weapons. Against the odds, they succeeded. Nuclear weapons have not been used in warfare for three quarters of a century. This book is the first in-depth history of how the nuclear peace was won by complementing deterrence with reassurance, and then jeopardized by discarding arms control after the Cold War ended. Winning and Losing the Nuclear Peace tells a remarkable story of high-wire acts of diplomacy, close calls, dogged persistence, and extraordinary success. Michael Krepon brings to life the pitched battles between arms controllers and advocates of nuclear deterrence, the ironic twists and unexpected outcomes from Truman to Trump. What began with a ban on atmospheric testing and a nonproliferation treaty reached its apogee with treaties that mandated deep cuts and corralled "loose nukes" after the Soviet Union imploded. After the Cold War ended, much of this diplomatic accomplishment was cast aside in favor of freedom of action. The nuclear peace is now imperiled by no less than four nuclear-armed rivalries. Arms control needs to be revived and reimagined for Russia and China to prevent nuclear warfare. New guardrails have to be erected. Winning and Losing the Nuclear Peace is an engaging account of how the practice of arms control was built from scratch, how it was torn down, and how it can be rebuilt.
Download or read book Technical Issues Related to the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty written by National Academy of Sciences and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2002-09-01 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing upon the considerable existing body of technical material related to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the National Academy of Sciences reviewed and assessed the key technical issues that arose during the Senate debate over treaty ratification. In particular, these include: (1) the capacity of the United States to maintain confidence in the safety and reliability of its nuclear stockpile in the absence of nuclear testing; (2) the nuclear-test detection capabilities of the international monitoring system (with and without augmentation by national systems and instrumentation in use for scientific purposes, and taking into account the possibilities for decoupling nuclear explosions from surrounding geologic media); and (3) the additions to their nuclear-weapons capabilities that other countries could achieve through nuclear testing at yield levels that might escape detection, and the effect of such additions on the security of the United States.
Download or read book Weapons of Terror written by Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission (Stockholm, Sweden) and published by Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission (WMDC). This book was released on 2006 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nuclear, biological and chemical weapons are designed to cause destruction on a vastly greater scale than any conventional weapons, with the potential to kill thousands in a single attack and with effects that may persist in the environment and in our bodies indefinitely. This report by the independent Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, chaired by Dr Hans Blix, sets out 60 recommendations on how the world community, national governments and civil society should address this global challenge under the following headings: preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons; preventing nuclear terrorism; reducing the threat and numbers of existing nuclear weapons; moving from regulating nuclear weapons to outlawing them; biological and toxin weapons; chemical weapons; weapons of mass destruction (WMD) delivery means, missile defences and weapons in space; export controls, international assistance and non-governmental actors; compliance, verification, enforcement and the role of the United Nations.
