Monitoring stations in Norway and Austria certified

On 8 November 2001, two additional facilities of the International Monitoring System (IMS) were certified as meeting all Preparatory Commission specifications, primary seismic station PS28 in Norway and radionuclide laboratory RL3 in Austria. PS28 is a seismic array located near the town of Karasjok in northern Norway and is operated by the Norwegian scientific institution NORSAR. PS28 was originally built in 1987 as a cooperative research programme between Norway and the United States in developing concepts for seismic monitoring of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). The array has 26 elements, significantly more than the standard 10 elements for new arrays being built by the Provisional Technical Secretariat (PTS). It was selected as an IMS station during the negotiations of the CTBT in Geneva. The station was upgraded to meet Preparatory Commission specifications in 1999 by NORSAR under contract to the PTS. There are land-use restrictions at PS28 related to the traditional rights of the local Sami people. All surface installations except the central facility building are buried and disguised by vegetation.

The radionuclide laboratory RL3 is located within the Health Physics Division of the Austrian Research Centers in Seibersdorf, Austria. It is the first of the sixteen radionuclide laboratories in the IMS to be certified as meeting all Preparatory Commission requirements. The role of the radionuclide laboratories in the IMS is to provide independent analyses of samples collected at IMS radionuclide stations.