The Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office (ASNO) and Geoscience Australia have entered a 5-year arrangement to extend their partnership on monitoring for nuclear explosions globally under the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).

A new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) reaffirms their 30-year partnership since the signing of the first nuclear monitoring MOU in 1993. The MOU will see ASNO provide $3.6 million to Geoscience Australia over four years to expand the global monitoring of nuclear explosions.

Australia has a total of 21 facilities used to monitor for nuclear explosions as part of the International Monitoring System under the CTBT, the third largest of any country. These facilities are strategically positioned over a large part of the Southern Hemisphere, from Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean to Macquarie Island in the Southern Ocean and from Darwin to Antarctica.

The International Monitoring System facilities use purpose-built detection technologies that listen for nuclear explosions in the air, water, and ground and filter for radioactive particles or gasses released from nuclear explosions. The data from these stations is fed live to the CTBT Organisation in Vienna and when an anomaly is detected that might be a nuclear explosion the data is sent to CTBT members for analysis in a National Data Centre.

Geoscience Australia hosts Australia's National Data Centre. Here they analyse world-wide CTBT data to inform the Australian Government about nuclear explosions that have been detected in breach of the CTBT. The new MOU brings the expertise of the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency formally into the National Data Centre for the first time to ensure International Monitoring System data is integrated into advice for Government to consider.

Australia is a committed party to the CTBT, and the new joined up national nuclear monitoring capabilities are integral to Australia's support for this treaty.

Quotes attributable to Director General, Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office, Dr Geoffrey Shaw

Australia has always played a leadership role in the development of and verification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).  ASNO, as Australia's national authority for the CTBT, has a long history in delivering on Australia's commitments.  ASNO values the support provided by Geoscience Australia to ensure that our monitoring systems are state of the art and remain fit for purpose.

ASNO, as a collaborative international partner, continues to deliver on Australia's CTBT obligations through the hosting of the world's third largest number of nuclear explosion monitoring stations.

Quotes attributable to Chief Executive Officer, Geoscience Australia, Dr James Johnson

Geoscience Australia is proud to support the Australian Government's commitment to the CTBT.

Geoscience Australia applies the best possible science to provide authoritative information regarding potential nuclear events, which can then be used by the appropriate authorities in the enforcement of the CTBT.

The new MOU formalises and continues a 30-year relationship that will deliver ongoing monitoring and scientific expertise into the future.