New movie on on-site inspections

In September 2008, a group of on-site inspection (OSI) experts, diplomats and support staff travelled to a remote part of Kazakhstan.  The aim of the journey was to participate in the Integrated Field Exercise 08 (IFE08) at the former Soviet Union nuclear test site at Semipalatinsk.  The IFE08 was a simulation exercise that enabled the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) to test an OSI. This is a key component of the verification regime which the CTBTO is building to monitor the globe for nuclear explosions.   An OSI can only be invoked once the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) has entered into force.

To make the IFE08 as realistic as possible, a fictitious State by the name of Arcania was created.  Arcania was suspected by its neighbour of having conducted a nuclear test. Now you can find out what really happened.

You can watch the inspection team’s fascinating journey from Almaty to Semipalatinsk and then further into the remote Kazakh steppe. The landscape there is littered with craters and boreholes – testimony to the many nuclear tests carried out in the region between 1949 and 1989. In this realistic environment, the inspection team searches for tell-tale signs of a nuclear explosion  

The movie shows how the exercise reaches a successful conclusion. Most importantly, the IFE08 demonstrated the organization’s capacity to conduct an effective OSI.  Many valuable lessons were taken away from the exercise, which will help strengthen the OSI regime in the future.

Cover of the new movie on on-site inspections. Click the above image to watch it.