EU support for the activities of the CTBTO

The project’s objective is to strengthen the capabilities of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) monitoring and verification system, including radionuclide detection. This is done in the framework of the CTBTO verification regime, aiming to monitor countries’ compliance with the ban of all nuclear explosions on the planet. On this basis, the project intends to enhance the ability of States Signatories to the CTBT to fulfil their verification responsibilities under the Treaty, as well as to enable them to benefit in full from their participation in the CTBT regime.

The actions carried out under this project include activities to support the Verification Technologies and Monitoring System, and actions  that aim at  providing  technical assistance to the States Signatories to the CTBT.

In terms of the activities to support the Verification Technologies and Monitoring System, the project sets out several specific objectives:

• Bringing target auxiliary seismic stations to a technical level compatible with the CTBTO international monitoring system (IMS) requirements, in a sustainable manner;
• Enhancing the High-Resolution Atmospheric Transport Model (HRATM), to perform simulations on a local scale;
• Producing a study on possible performance improvements of FLEXPART simulations through Graphics Processing Unit acceleration;
• Developing a background estimator tool to quantify radio xenon contributions to detections at IMS stations, as well as of a source-term estimator tool;
• Allowing the Preparatory Commission for the CTBTO to keep implementing its radio xenon mobile measurement campaigns in different regions of the world.

As for the technical-assistance activities, the project foresees:

• capacity building and outreach;
• homogenisation of the multi-waveform technology processing;
• organisation of on-site inspection regional introductory training courses for two CTBT geographical regions.

The project stakeholders are the CTBTO, as the implementing organization, and States Signatories to the CTBT.

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