VIENNA / DPRK NUCLEAR TEST

The UN's nuclear test ban treaty organization, CTBTO will monitor for a North Korean nuclear test in case the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) acts on its latest threat. CTBTO

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:03:02
• Production Date: 4 February 2013
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: COMPREHENSIVE NUCLEAR-TEST-BAN TREATY ORGANIZATION - CTBTO
• Subject Topical: POLITICAL AFFAIRS; LAW; INTERNATIONAL LAW; POLITICAL CONDITIONS; INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS; PEACE AND SECURITY; DISARMAMENT; NUCLEAR SCIENCE
• Geographic Subject: DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA; AUSTRIA
• MAMS Id: U130204a

Description

STORY: VIENNA / DPRK NUCLEAR TEST
TRT: 3.02
SOURCE: CTBTO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 4 FEBRUARY 2013, VIENNA, AUSTRIA

FILE - 12 DECEMBER 2012, CTBTO HEADQUARTERS, VIENNA, AUSTRIA

1. Wide shot, Memorial Plaza at the UN Headquarters in Vienna with flags
2. Med shot, two technicians working at the CTBTO “CONTROL ROOM”, the International Data Centre’s Operations Centre
3. Close up, “CONTROL ROOM” door
4. Pan left, from monitor showing world map with monitoring stations to two technicians working in the control room.

4 FEBRUARY 2013, VIENNA, AUSTRIA

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Annika Thunborg, Spokesperson, CTBTO:
“The CTBTO monitoring system scans the world for any sign of a nuclear explosion 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We detected the nuclear tests in North Korea in 2006 and 2009 confidently, and reliably, and swiftly.”

FILE - 12 DECEMBER 2012, CTBTO HEADQUARTERS, VIENNA, AUSTRIA

6. Wide shot, two technicians working in the control room with monitors on the walls showing monitoring stations
7. Med shot, two technicians working
8. Close up, hands of technician typing
9. Med shot, radionuclide analyst analyzing spectra
10. Close up, pan from analyst to monitor with spectra

4 FEBRUARY 2013, VIENNA, AUSTRIA

11. SOUNDBITE (English) Annika Thunborg, Spokesperson, CTBTO:
“We have 150 seismic stations that are monitoring the underground for any sign of an underground nuclear test, and the seismic system is very sensitive and it acts very fast – seismic waves propagate very fast through the earth – so within a couple of minutes stations all over the world can detect signs of a nuclear explosion.”

FILE - MAY 2010, FREYUNG, BAVARIAN FOREST, GERMANY

12. Wide shot, technician going inside the vault of a seismic monitoring station
13. Med shot, technician descending into the seismic monitoring station

4 FEBRUARY 2013, VIENNA, AUSTRIA

14. SOUNDBITE (English) Annika Thunborg, Spokesperson, CTBTO:
“What the seismic technology does, or provides for, is the distinction between an earthquake and a man-made explosion, so our system weeds out all the natural events, all the earthquakes, and focuses on what could be explosions, including nuclear explosions.”

FILE - APRIL 2012, SEISMIC STATION, YELLOW KNIFE, CANADA

15. Wide shot, Seismic monitoring station
16. Med shot, Engineer inside a seismic monitoring station
17. Med shot, analyst assessing seismic wave forms with three computer screens
18. Close up, computer screen showing radionuclide data
19. Close up, screen showing a projection of all the different types of monitoring stations

4 FEBRUARY 2013, VIENNA, AUSTRIA

20. SOUNDBITE (English) Annika Thunborg, Spokesperson, CTBTO:
“Part of our monitoring system detects radioactivity, it sniffs the air for any sign of radioactivity.”

FILE - 12 DECEMBER 2012, CTBTO HEADQUARTERS, VIENNA, AUSTRIA

21. Wide shot, CTBTO radionuclide test station on the roof of the United Nations Headquarters in Vienna with maintenance engineer
22. Med shot, maintenance engineer opening CTBTO radionuclide station and loosening the fixing of the old filter
23. Various shots, maintenance engineer putting new filter into the CTBTO radionuclide station and closing it

4 FEBRUARY 2013, VIENNA, AUSTRIA

24. SOUNDBITE (English) Annika Thunborg, Spokesperson, CTBTO:
“In 2006 and 2009 when North Korea tested, the Security Council looked at this issue immediately on the same day, and all of the member-states that were also members of the UN Security Council had first-hand information about the magnitude, time, location and depth of the nuclear test.”

FILE - 12 DECEMBER 2012, CTBTO HEADQUARTERS, VIENNA, AUSTRIA

25. Med shot, technician taking out samples from a drawer
26. Close up, technician putting identification number on filter sample
27. Med shot, technician processing sample
28. Close up, technician processing sample

Storyline

The International Monitoring System of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBO) is positioned to quickly and reliably detect signs of a nuclear test, CTBTO Spokesperson Annika Thunborg said in Vienna, Austria today (February 4).

Thunborg’s comments came amid renewed threats by North Korea that it will conduct a third nuclear test.

SOUNDBITE (English) Annika Thunborg, Spokesperson, CTBTO:
“The CTBTO monitoring system scans the world for any sign of a nuclear explosion 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We detected the nuclear tests in North Korea in 2006 and 2009 confidently, and reliably, and swiftly.”

Currently some 275 CTBTO stations (seismic, infrasound, hydro acoustic, radionuclide and noble gas) are up and running to scan the earth for any sign of a nuclear explosion.

SOUNDBITE (English) Annika Thunborg, Spokesperson, CTBTO:
“We have 150 seismic stations that are monitoring the underground for any sign of an underground nuclear test, and the seismic system is very sensitive and it acts very fast – seismic waves propagate very fast through the earth – so within a couple of minutes stations all over the world can detect signs of a nuclear explosion.”

The system is designed to detect violations of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test- Ban Treaty (CTBT) which bans nuclear explosions everywhere on the Earth’s surface, in the atmosphere, in outer space, underwater and underground. The treaty was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1996.

SOUNDBITE (English) Annika Thunborg, Spokesperson, CTBTO:
“What the seismic technology does, or provides for, is the distinction between an earthquake and a man-made explosion, so our system weeds out all the natural events, all the earthquakes, and focuses on what could be explosions, including nuclear explosions.”

As well as seismic events, the monitoring system is so sensitive it can trace the dispersal of miniscule amounts of radioactivity, if it is released. Unlike the seismic data that can be relayed within minutes, the detection of any radioactivity release by a nuclear blast may take several days or even longer as it depends on the winds that carry the radioactivity to the CTBTO’s radionuclide and noble gas stations.

SOUNDBITE (English) Annika Thunborg, Spokesperson, CTBTO:
“Part of our monitoring system detects radioactivity, it sniffs the air for any sign of radioactivity.”

SOUNDBITE (English) Annika Thunborg, Spokesperson, CTBTO:
“In 2006 and 2009 when North Korea tested the Security Council looked at this issue immediately on the same day, and all of the member-states that were also members of the UN Security Council had first-hand information about the magnitude, time, location and depth of the nuclear test.”

One hundred and eighty-three countries have signed the CTBT, of which 157 have also ratified it. Eight remaining countries must ratify the Treaty for it to enter into force. They are China, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and the USA.

A global verification regime which will comprise over 330 sensors when complete monitors the globe around the clock for nuclear explosions to detect any violations of the Treaty. The system reliably detected the nuclear test explosions by North Korea in 2006 and 2009.