NZ Crucial Link In Global Nuclear Test Ban Monitoring

New Zealand is set to become an early and crucial link in a global nuclear test monitoring system with the signing of a contract with the United Nations by Health Minister Wyatt Creech.

The contract formalises an agreement which will see three radionuclide monitoring stations operated by the Ministry of Health's National Radiation Laboratory coming on line by November.

Radionuclides are small radioactive particles present in small amounts in the atmosphere after a nuclear test.

Three state-of-the-art monitoring stations will be installed in Kaitaia, Rarotonga, and the Chatham Islands. The Chathams' site will eventually include two further specialised monitoring technologies: an Infrasound station to detect very long wavelength sound waves detectable over considerable distances and a Noble Gas monitoring facility looking for artificially created changes in these gases.

The initial three monitoring stations will form part of a South Pacific network monitoring compliance with the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Two other stations will be located in Australia and all will be linked to an eventual world-wide network of 80 radionuclide monitoring facilities.

The monitoring stations will be owned by New Zealand with set up and operational costs largely met by the United Nations through the Provisional Technical Secretariat - the agency charged with overseeing the installation of the monitoring network.

The stations will operate 24 hours a day taking air samples every 10 minutes and relaying the results every two hours by satellite to an international data centre in Vienna. Monitoring in the southern hemisphere is particularly important because the South Pacific and Southern Oceans provide a large area where nuclear testing in breach of the treaty could be carried out.

The New Zealand and Australian stations will be the first stations to come on line in the world. Extra monitoring in the Chathams will become operational within the next three years.

The initial three New Zealand operated stations will also provide weather information able to be collected and used by New Zealand agencies.

The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty has 150 signatories (including New Zealand) and has been ratified by 21 countries. The treaty bans all nuclear testing and places an obligation on signatories to prohibit and prevent nuclear explosions at any place under their jurisdiction or control.