- Second inspection phase and completion of exercise
Autumn has arrived. The trees and shrubs that appear intermittently along the train tracks in the otherwise barren Kazakh steppe show off the colours of the season.
The train to Almaty, Kazakhstan, carries many international experts and scientists who have just completed one of the most ambitious projects in the history of nuclear disarmament. For over three weeks, the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban-Treaty Organization (CTBTO) ran its first ever Integrated Field Exercise for on-site inspections. The exercise took place at the former Soviet Union nuclear test site of Semipalatinsk in Kazakahstan, allowing the organization to test the readiness of its on-site inspection regime. On-site inspections are one of the key elements of a global alarm system to detect clandestine nuclear explosions worldwide.
- The CTBTO integrated on–site inspection exercise took place at the former Soviet Union nuclear test site Semipalatinsk.
To provide the exercise with a realistic setting for a possible violation of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), the fictitious State of Arcania was invented. A seismic event of magnitude 4 accompanied by an inexplicable release of the radioactive substance Cesium 137 created the necessary backdrop. They could both have been caused by an underground nuclear explosion. International experts as well as CTBTO staff participated in the exercise, playing the roles of the CTBTO inspection team and representatives of Arcania.
Exercise ends without evidence of nuclear explosion
The weather in the northern Kazakh plain had once again turned unseasonably cold. Night temperatures dropped below freezing point as field activities of the Integrated Field Exercise 2008 (IFE08) came to a close on 24 September. In the three preceding weeks, the 49-people strong Inspection Team had searched the 1000 square kilometre inspection area thoroughly for evidence of an underground nuclear explosion. At no time were there more than 40 inspectors out in the field. Using a wide range of examination techniques, inspectors were unable to prove that a nuclear explosion had taken place. Instead, the suspicious data had most probably been caused by an earthquake, as claimed by Arcania.
