El Salvador ratifies the CTBT

El Salvador deposited its instrument of ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) with the Secretary-General of the United Nations on 11 September 1998. El Salvador is the twenty-first Signatory State and the fourth in the Latin American region to have ratified the Treaty. 

The global monitoring system consists of a total of 321 stations (170 seismic, 80 radionuclide supported by 16 laboratories, 60 infrasound and 11 hydroacoustic) that will be capable of registering shock waves emanating from a nuclear explosion underground, in the seas and in the air, as well as detecting the radioactive particles released into the atmosphere.

The stations will transmit, via satellite, the data collected from the four complementary technologies to the International Data Centre in Vienna where the data will be processed and distributed to the signatory States.

The 20 other States that have ratified the Treaty are: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Czech Republic, Fiji, France, Germany, Grenada, Japan, Jordan, Micronesia (Federated States of), Mongolia, Peru, Qatar, Slovakia, Spain, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Uzbekistan. To date, 150 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  
E    [email protected]
M    +43 699 1459 6375