ElBaradei Calls for Entry Into Force of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

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IAEA Director General Opens CTBT Symposium
Staff Report
1 September 2006

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) is a key to global security, IAEA Chief Mohamed ElBaradei remarked at the opening of a two-day symposium marking the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the Treaty.

Praising the organization in setting up a comprehensive monitoring system for verification, he said that the Treaty is "our best hope of stemming nuclear proliferation". It was against this background that Dr. ElBaradei expressed his disappointment that the Treaty was still not formally in force.

"The CTBT is key to a system of security we are trying to build. A system of security that does not rely on nuclear weapons," Dr. ElBaradei told the 500-plus participants who gathered to mark the anniversary in Vienna. "We either send a clear message that we want to see a world free from nuclear weapons or we will continue to see a gradual erosion of the kind of system we have tried to build since the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was adopted in the late 1960s."

The CTBT, which bans all nuclear weapons testing, will not enter into force until it has been ratified by all 44 States that are listed in the agreement. Still missing are seven States (China, Colombia, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Israel and the United States) that have signed but not ratified, and three States (the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, India and Pakistan) that have yet to sign the CTBT. The Treaty was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly and opened for signature in New York in September 1996 when it was signed by 71 States, including the five nuclear-weapon States. To date, it has 176 signatories and 135 ratifying States. (See Story Resources for related links) ...

http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/News/2006/ctbt_symposium.html

[bemildred]

1. About time. nt

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2. Subcritical 'Unicorn' experiment conducted Wednesday at Test Site

Sep. 01, 2006

Unicorn, a subcritical experiment, was successfully conducted at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Nevada Test Site. Los Alamos National Laboratory conducted the experiment .. Unicorn was the 23rd subcritical experiment to date. The previous subcritical experiment, Krakatau, was conducted Feb. 23. Subcritical experiments examine the behavior of plutonium as it is strongly shocked by forces produced by chemical high explosives .. http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/2006/Sep-01-Fri-2006/news/9383677.html