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STORY: CTBTO / NUCLEAR TEST BAN TREATY EXERCISE
TRT: 02:15
SOURCE: CTBTO
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT CTBTO ON SCREEN
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 2 JULY 2024, GYÖNGYÖS, HUNGARY
1. Various shots, participants in the Build-Up Exercise 2024 (BUE24) inside a conference room, sitting at desks and listening to a presentation
2. Wide shot, surrogate inspection team (wearing light blue t-shirts) and other participants walking through storage pods, against a backdrop of trees
3. Aerial shot, surrogate inspection team tent, including two surrogate inspectors (woman and man, wearing light blue t-shirts) walking. The shot moves in and rotates left showing the top of the tent
4. Aerial shot, Base of Operations (BOO), zooming out to reveal the field and surrounding hilly and forest covered area.
5. Pan left, inside the surrogate inspectors’ tent, during their morning team meeting showing the backs of the participants listening to the deputy team leader sharing an update.
6. Aerial shot, road flanked by lush green forest, through which a convoy of white cars is passing through.
7. Med shot, two surrogate inspectors (man and woman, wearing light blue t-shirts) using a gamma scanner (HPGE), in front of a closed tunnel
8. Close up, surrogate inspectors’ hands and GIMO tablet, used to document and record the data from the measuring equipment used
9. Close up, surrogate inspectors’ hands recording data in the GIMO tablet, panning up to the face of the man
10. Wide shot, surrogate inspector (woman light blue t-shirt) collecting a soil sample from a shallow ditch accompanied by fellow surrogate inspector (man light blue t-shirt)
11. Zoom in, inside lab tent, surrogate inspector (woman wearing lab coat) is placing one of the samples received in a machine for analysis
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Annika Markovic, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sweden to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna;
“The CTBT is a super important treaty to the Swedish government, and the inspection, and these field exercises that they are doing are really important to make sure that when the convention enters into force, that it will be working. Whenever there is a request for On-Site Inspection then we need to be ready. And we need to be going there immediately, and this is all to make sure that also Member States understand that there is something behind this, and it’s really, super important.”
13. Close up, surrogate inspector (man in light blue t-shirt) spraying to mark the location measured for the placement of equipment for monitoring seismic waves
14. Med shot, measuring of the length for placing the measuring equipment and spraying the ground to mark the spot as the surrogate inspector (light blue t-shirt) walks away from the camera
15. Wide shot, Geoprobe unloaded from the transport vehicle
16. Close up, hands of the operator and the remote controller of the Geoprobe, panning up to the face of the surrogate inspector (man) in PPE gear and wearing a reflecting vest
17. Close up, looking up to the Geoprobe being operated to punch a hole into the agreed location.
18. Medium shot of the Geoprobe being used to punch the hole by the surrogate inspector operating it
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Elran Sason Ben Or, Chief, Policy Planning and Operations, On-Site Inspection Division, CTBTO:
“It’s a special or unique activity that you will not find it in other places, and in the end that’s the message. The message saying if individuals from all over the world coming together collaborating, and this collaboration creates great things, this could also work in the international capacity. This is the main message.”
20. Close up, surrogate inspector (woman wearing a light blue t-shirt) setting up an air sampling equipment, against a backdrop of exposed tree roots and green forest
21. Close up, air sampling equipment set-up
To prepare for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty’s entry into force, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) conducted a Build-up Exercise in Hungary, where top experts gathered for three weeks to role play the scenarios that would unfold if one country in the world – once the treaty enters into force – is accused of conducting a nuclear weapons test.
The experts’ role is to determine if that indeed has happened.
At the invitation of Hungary, they gathered in Gyöngyös, about one hour from Budapest, as a stand in for the fictitious country of Bludor, divided into teams: one team is representing the Inspected State and the other team is the Inspection Team. Though it’s technically a game, the stakes could not be higher: the scientists are using a variety of high-tech techniques to determine if there was indeed a nuclear test and report their results to Member States.
SOUNDBITE (English) Annika Markovic, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sweden to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna;
“The CTBT is a super important treaty to the Swedish government, and the inspection, and these field exercises that they are doing are really important to make sure that when the convention enters into force, that it will be working. Whenever there is a request for On-Site Inspection then we need to be ready. And we need to be going there immediately, and this is all to make sure that also Member States understand that there is something behind this, and it’s really, super important.”
Since the treaty opened for signature in 1996, the technological tools have advanced in extraordinary ways. CTBTO’s On-site Inspections (OSI) has transported 90 tonnes of equipment from Austria to Gyöngyös, with the technical experts building a Base of Operations and working with the diverse equipment including seismometry, radioxenon measurements, argon analysis and other measurements of radioactivity.
SOUNDBITE (English) Elran Sason Ben Or, Chief, Policy Planning and Operations, On-Site Inspection Division, CTBTO:
“It’s a special or unique activity that you will not find it in other places, and in the end that’s the message. The message saying if individuals from all over the world coming together collaborating, and this collaboration creates great things, this could also work in the international capacity. This is the main message.”
The aim of this Build-Up Exercise in 2024 (BUE24) is to test OSI operational capabilities in preparation for a larger Integrated Field Exercise in 2025 which will be held in Sri Lanka. Representatives from Sri Lanka, as well as from the nuclear authority of Hungary, Vienna-based ambassadors and CTBTO staff have come to the final days of this exercise to determine lessons learned and see just how effective the ability to gather evidence and enforce the treaty can be.
