Italy ratifies Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

Italy deposited its instrument of ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) with the Secretary-General of the United Nations on 1 February 1999. Italy is the twenty-eighth signatory State to have ratified the Treaty and is one of the 44 countries listed in the Treaty whose ratification is necessary for its entry into force. Italy is hosting one auxiliary seismic station and one radionuclide laboratory that will be part of the international network of monitoring stations that the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO PrepCom) is establishing or upgrading to verify compliance with the Treaty.

Under the CTBT, an international monitoring system of 321 stations, using four complementary technologies, is being established to record data necessary to verify compliance with the Treaty. The stations will be capable of registering vibrations from a nuclear explosion underground, in the seas and in the air, as well as detecting radioactive debris released into the atmosphere. The monitoring stations will transmit, via satellite, the data to the International Data Centre (IDC) within CTBTO PrepCom in Vienna, where the data will be used to detect, locate and characterize events. These data and other IDC products will be made available to the signatory States for final analysis.

The 27 other States that have ratified the Treaty are: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Grenada, Japan, Jordan, Micronesia (Federated States of), Monaco, Mongolia, Peru, Qatar, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Uzbekistan. To date, 152 States have signed the Treaty.

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty bans any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion anywhere in the world. Drafted at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva and adopted by the General Assembly on 10 September 1996, the Treaty was opened for signature on 24 September 1996 at the United Nations in New York.

For further information on the CTBTO, please see www.ctbto.org or contact: 
Annika Thunborg
Chief, Public Information   
T    +43 1 26030-6375  
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