CTBTO DETECTS RADIONUCLIDES LIKELY FROM FEBRUARY NORTH KOREAN NUCLEAR TEST

A radionuclide monitoring station in Japan earlier this month detected evidence of North Korea’s Feb. 12 nuclear test, providing additional confirmation of the test and potentially bolstering the credibility of the monitoring regime linked to the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty. The detection station in Takasaki, Japan, about 620 miles from the North Korean test site, detected two radioactive isotopes of the noble gas xenon starting April 8, and the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty Organization said yesterday the detections were likely from the North Korean nuclear test. It said that xenon isotopes that were detected align with a nuclear fission event that would have taken place more than 50 days ago, and weather models have suggested that the North Korea test is a likely source of the radionuclides. Another monitoring station in Ussuriysk, Russia, detected lower levels of xenon isotopes, the CTBTO said. “We are in the process of eliminating other possible sources that could explain the observations; the radionuclides could have come from a nuclear reactor or other nuclear activity under certain specific conditions, but so far we do not have information on such a release,” CTBTO radionuclide expert Mika Nikkinen said in a statement.