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UN PhotoUN / COMPREHENSIVE NUCLEAR TEST BAN TREATY
STORY: UN / COMPREHENSIVE NUCLEAR TEST BAN TREATY
TRT: 03:23
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 29 APRIL 2026, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, UN Headquarters
29 APRIL 2026, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, press room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Floyd, Executive Secretary, Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO):
“The NPT Review Conference and Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference here this week, but for the next four weeks, is an important review of the cornerstone of the nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament architecture.”
4. Wide shot, press room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Floyd, Executive Secretary, Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO):
“The organization that I head is about implementing a treaty that sits within that architecture, and that is a treaty, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, banning nuclear explosions of any size - from the tiniest to the largest. That is an essential part of being able to stop the spread of nuclear weapons around the world from state to state, and also to limit the further development of nuclear weapons.”
6. Wide shot, press room
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Floyd, Executive Secretary, Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO):
“The Treaty has not yet entered into force, and therefore is not legally binding, but our international monitoring system will detect a nuclear weapon explosion of 500 tons of TNT or above, anywhere across the face of the planet, or underwater, underground, it will be detected. And that is a powerful benefit to all humanity, because any state that thinks of developing a nuclear weapon would need to test one, and If they did, it will be known to all.”
8. Wide shot, press room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Floyd, Executive Secretary, Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO):
“In the current situation, the CTBT and the ban on testing is a little bit more in front of mind than what it has been for a long time, particularly when states are threatening to return to testing and the likelihood that if one state tests, others would and even more would potentially then go into a spiral of expanded testing. That is a spiral that we do not want to see start, because it may never be able to be stopped.”
10. Wide shot, press room
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Floyd, Executive Secretary, Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO):
“We have 187 states have signed. 178 have ratified. But there are nine specific ones that still need to ratify so the treaty could become legally binding. That is an important issue.”
12. Wide shot, press room
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Floyd, Executive Secretary, Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO):
“We need to see a way that the United States of America, the Russian Federation, the People's Republic of China, might be able to address the treaty and its ratification together. It is, I think, quite unlikely that any one of them would move on that without the others simultaneously moving together. And that certainly is something that I would encourage all of those states to consider, and that would certainly be a powerful step forward.”
14. Wide shot, press room
Robert Floyd, Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), warned against “a spiral of expanded testing” that “we do not want to see start, because it may never be able to be stopped.”
Floyd addressed the press today (29 Apr) on the vital role of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in advancing the non-proliferation and disarmament objectives of the Eleventh Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
He said, “The NPT Review Conference and Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference here this week, but for the next four weeks, is an important review of the cornerstone of the nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament architecture.”
He said that CTBTO “is about implementing a treaty that sits within that architecture, and that is a treaty, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, banning nuclear explosions of any size - from the tiniest to the largest. That is an essential part of being able to stop the spread of nuclear weapons around the world from state to state, and also to limit the further development of nuclear weapons.”
He continued, “The Treaty has not yet entered into force, and therefore is not legally binding, but our international monitoring system will detect a nuclear weapon explosion of 500 tons of TNT or above, anywhere across the face of the planet, or underwater, underground, it will be detected. And that is a powerful benefit to all humanity, because any state that thinks of developing a nuclear weapon would need to test one, and If they did, it will be known to all.”
He highlighted, “In the current situation, the CTBT and the ban on testing is a little bit more in front of mind than what it has been for a long time, particularly when states are threatening to return to testing and the likelihood that if one state tests, others would and even more would potentially then go into a spiral of expanded testing. That is a spiral that we do not want to see start, because it may never be able to be stopped.”
He reported, “We have 187 states have signed. 178 have ratified. But there are nine specific ones that still need to ratify so the treaty could become legally binding. That is an important issue.”
Answering a question, he said, “We need to see a way that the United States of America, the Russian Federation, the People's Republic of China, might be able to address the treaty and its ratification together. It is, I think, quite unlikely that any one of them would move on that without the others simultaneously moving together. And that certainly is something that I would encourage all of those states to consider, and that would certainly be a powerful step forward.”
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) – which marks 30 years as States gather at NPT Review Conference - is a global agreement that bans all nuclear weapon test explosions everywhere- above ground, underwater, and underground.
The Treaty has broad international support, with 187 countries signed and 178 ratified so far. However, it still cannot officially enter into force because nine key countries with nuclear technology- China, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, and the United States - have not completed ratification.
India, North Korea, and Pakistan have not even signed it. Since 1996, only 10 nuclear tests have been conducted worldwide, compared to more than 2,000 in the previous five decades. In this century, only DPRK has carried out nuclear tests.
CTBTO can detect any nuclear explosion anywhere in the world. Its main tasks are promoting universal support for the Treaty and building a system that can detect any nuclear explosion anywhere in the world.
This verification system is called the International Monitoring System (IMS), a global network of 337 facilities using seismic, hydroacoustic, infrasound, and radionuclide technologies to detect signs of nuclear tests.
IMS seismic stations monitor shockwaves through the ground, its hydroacoustic stations detect sound waves in the oceans, infrasound stations listen for ultra-low-frequency sound waves inaudible to the human ear, and radionuclide stations monitor the atmosphere for radioactive particles and gases from a nuclear explosion.
In addition to these 321 monitoring stations, 16 radionuclide laboratories help to identify radioactive substances.
Around 90 percent of the system is already operational, and it successfully detected all of North Korea’s declared nuclear tests.
Once the Treaty enters into force, On-Site Inspections will also be possible, allowing experts to investigate suspicious events directly on the ground.
Beyond nuclear monitoring, the IMS also provides valuable scientific data for civil and research purposes worldwide.
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