Bulgaria ratifies Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

Bulgaria deposited its instrument of ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) with the Secretary-General of the United Nations on 29 September 1999. Bulgaria is the forty-seventh State signatory to have ratified the Treaty and the twenty-third of the 44 States listed in the Treaty to do so. Under Article XIV, to enter into force, the CTBT has to be ratified by 44 nuclear-capable States that formally participated in the work of the 1996 Conference on Disarmament and that possess nuclear power and research reactors as listed in the Treaty.

Under the CTBT, an international monitoring system (IMS) of 321 stations, using four complementary technologies, is being established to record data necessary to verify compliance with the Treaty. The stations will be capable of registering vibrations from a nuclear explosion underground, in the seas and in the air, as well as detecting radioactive debris released into the atmosphere. The monitoring stations will transmit, via satellite, the data to the International Data Centre (IDC) within CTBTO PrepCom in Vienna, where the data will be used to detect, locate and characterize events. These data and other IDC products will be made available to the signatory States for final analysis.

The 46 other States that have ratified the Treaty are: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Lesotho, Luxembourg, Mali, Micronesia (Federated States of), Monaco, Mongolia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Peru, Poland, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Senegal, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Uzbekistan. To date, 154 States have signed the Treaty. The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty bans any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion anywhere in the world. Drafted at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva and adopted by the General Assembly on 10 September 1996, the Treaty was opened for signature on 24 September 1996 at the United Nations in New York. Bulgaria was one of the 71 States that signed the Treaty on that day.

For further information on the CTBTO, please see www.ctbto.org or contact: 
Annika Thunborg, Chief, Public Information   
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