Division 2.1.1 Background

One of the unique features of the CTBT verification regime within the non-proliferation and disarmament regime is the real-time provision of compliance-relevant information directly to States Signatories of the CTBT. In addition to the primary verification purpose of the CTBT monitoring and verification system, the technologies and the data of the IMS are of considerable use to civilian and government agencies in their analyses of (for example) earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, underwater explosions, climate change and tsunamis.

While interest among developing countries in the establishment of National Data Centres (NDCs) has grown significantly over the past years — there has been an increase of approximately 36 subscribers to the IDC since 2008 — many developing countries still do not yet have full access to the CTBT monitoring and verification system.

Therefore, additional efforts are being made by the Preparatory Commission to increase the number of established NDCs, the number of Secure Signatory Accounts and the number of authorised users. In particular, the 62 remaining States Signatories of the CTBT that do not yet have access to IMS Data and IDC products are targeted (25 in Africa, 9 in Latin America, 6 in the Middle East and South Asia, 12 in South-East Asia, the Pacific and the Far East, 3 in Eastern Europe and 7 in North America and Western Europe). These efforts are directed towards those who need technical support in order to increase their use of these data and products.

To sustain the activities of the NDCs, the necessary resources for the operation of the facility must be provided by the recipient countries. The commitment of the recipient countries is regarded as a prerequisite for the success of this project.

This project consists of four complementary components which will enhance the scope and reach of the existing capacity building capabilities of the Preparatory Commission. This project builds upon the existing framework of providing capacity building training and equipment to developing countries by including countries and regions that have not yet benefitted from such support, and by enlarging the scope to also include training on radionuclide monitoring and ATM. Software will be developed and promoted to process waveform data from seismic, hydroacoustic and infrasound data in real time. A new fellowship programme will foster State-to-State knowledge exchange and collaboration, while scientific research and collaboration will be supported by the virtual Data Exploitation Centre (vDEC).