Alissa Tabirian
NS&D Monitor
10/30/2015
A team of five Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) staffers that joined over 200 experts from 44 countries to conduct an on-site field exercise in Jordan late last year to evaluate progress in developing the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) was recognized for “exceptional work,” the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced late last week.
As part of the field exercise, experts used “120 tons of equipment to search for the site of a simulated nuclear explosion in a 1,000-square-kilometer area on the banks of the Dead Sea,” the NNSA said. The exercise cut the timeline for finishing an on-site inspection from 130 days – as permitted by the treaty – to five weeks, the agency added.
“The exercise tested the ability of the 40 inspectors to find and analyze data from a simulated nuclear explosion site within the maximum inspection area allowed by the Treaty,” according to the release. Treaty members can request verification of suspected nuclear detonations, at which point 40 international inspectors are deployed to the suspected detonation site. The NNSA previously noted that “some of the conclusive evidence of a nuclear explosion, such as seismic aftershocks and short-lived radionuclides, can only be found during the first several days.”
The LANL team, consisting of team leader Ward Hawkins, Richard Kelley, Emily Schultz-Fellenz, Aviva Sussman, and Kenneth Wohletz, was recognized by NNSA administrator Frank Klotz earlier this month for “exceptional work” in the exercise.
Last week, Secretary of State John Kerry called for a renewed push for U.S. ratification of the agreement banning all nuclear explosive testing, following a failed attempt by the Clinton administration to secure Senate approval in the 1990s. Kerry urged Congress to ramp up support for treaty ratification in light of technical advances ensuring the effectiveness of nonexplosive testing of U.S. nuclear weapons and the development of an international verification regime to ensure compliance by CTBT member states.
A total of 164 states have ratified the treaty, which also requires ratification by 44 nuclear-capable states to enter into force. However, eight of those states – including the United States, India, Pakistan, and North Korea – have not yet ratified or refuse to do so.
