Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization - The 182-member sates of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) on Monday in Vienna, Austria, approved a plan to boost the organization’s on-site inspection capabilities. In a statement issued at the UN headquarters in New York, the CTBO said that the member states also endorsed a budget for the next Integrated Field Exercise (IFE) amounting to US$ 10.3 million. It stated: ``This exercise, to be held in 2014, will test and train the organization's on-site inspection capabilities in an all-encompassing way'. It also noted that, ``the plan also foresees a host of preceding smaller exercises and other run-up activities. IFE 2014 will be the second large-scale undertaking of its kind after the IFE 2008 in Kazakhstan in September 2008'. The statement said that member sates also echoed the Final Declaration of last month’s conference to promote the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).

``They, however, called on the nine States that have yet to ratify the treaty for it to enter into force to do so without delay,' it said.

The nine are China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Pakistan and the US.

It added that the recent ratifications by Ghana and Guinea were welcomed by the member states.

The statement further said that delegates also reviewed and commended the organization for the progress in the build-up of the International Monitoring System:285 of 337 planned facilities have been established to date.

They also applauded the system’s performance during the Fukushima crisis and CTBTO’s close cooperation with other relevant international organizations, such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

The CTBT bans all nuclear explosions by everyone, everywhere on the Earth’s surface, in the atmosphere, underwater and underground.

Pana 25/10/2011