Nuclear Test Ban Body CTBTO Opens Major Snt Conference With Hiroshima Warning

(MENAFN- Daily News Egypt) Vienna – The head of the world's nuclear test ban watchdog opened a major science and technology conference in Vienna on Tuesday, telling a record number of participants that the world is on the verge of its longest-ever period without a single nuclear test.

Dr Robert Floyd, Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO), began his address to the SnT2025 conference by invoking the memory of the first atomic bombings 80 years ago to underscore the importance of the organisation's mission.

“It's 6 August 1945 in Hiroshima. A bright summer morning. Thirteen-year-old Shigeru Orimen – He is so excited! His mother has packed his lunchbox. It includes special potatoes. He's grown them from seed himself. His mother later finds the charred lunchbox. Near his body,” Floyd said.

“In July 1945 came that first fateful nuclear test in New Mexico. Then, just three weeks later, came the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We've just marked the 80th anniversaries of those events. I had the privilege to attend the commemorations in Japan,” he added.“Shigeru's lunchbox is there. In a museum. His lunch was never eaten. 80 years on – a good time to reflect.”

The Science and Technology (SnT) conference, a hybrid event held at Vienna's Hofburg Palace and online, brings together more than 2,000 scientists, academics and policy makers. Floyd noted it was the eighth and largest in a series that began with a modest gathering of 200 scientists in 2006.

He recalled how at the 2011 conference, his predecessor Tibor Tóth had highlighted the organisation's advances, including its success in monitoring North Korea's second nuclear test in 2009.

“All that was fourteen years ago! So much more has happened since then,” Floyd said, pointing to recent improvements in interactive radionuclide review tools and infrasound technology.

From kilobytes to gigabytes

Floyd highlighted the immense technological leaps made since the treaty was opened for signature in 1996, when over 2,000 nuclear tests had already been conducted. He said diplomats and scientists had to build a verification system that was both“TRUSTED and TRUSTWORTHY”.

He gave the example of communications bandwidth in the 1990s, when the nascent International Monitoring System (IMS) was being designed. The system could only stream 3.1 megabytes of data per day to the International Data Centre in Vienna.

“That's 10,000 times less data than today,” Floyd said.“These days we stream to Vienna 36 Gigabytes/Day.”

Floyd also noted that bold decisions made in the 1990s by a Group of Scientific Experts on data archiving have ensured that all data gathered since is stable, searchable and can be robustly compared over decades, creating a unique global research resource.

Conference attendees will be able to experience the monitoring network through a virtual reality facility and view an exhibit of an On-Site Inspection tent, similar to one that will be used in a major field exercise next year.

AI and human responsibility

Addressing the“explosion” in Artificial Intelligence, Floyd said technologies like machine learning and quantum science had obvious potential for processing the vast datasets the CTBTO collects, but stressed the need for human oversight.

“That's why at CTBTO our final validators aren't machines. They're our human experts,” he said.“No room for mistakes. No room for miscalculations. No short-cuts!”

He cited a real-world example from October of last year when the CTBTO's network was used to quickly debunk social media rumours of a nuclear test in Iran following two small earth tremors. Data from 40 IMS stations showed no nuclear explosion signature and were consistent with historical earthquakes in the area.

“We established hard scientific facts by using meticulous methodology. We cut right through all the rumours and disinformation. The world knew what had happened. CTBTO quickly helped reduce global tensions. That's our job,” Floyd said.

He contrasted the nearly weekly nuclear tests of the 1970s and 1980s with the“fewer than a dozen” tests conducted since the treaty opened for signature in 1996, calling it a“success story like no other.”

Looking ahead, Floyd set a date for a new milestone.“14 January 2026. Now just 18 weeks away,” he said.“If – when – we get to 14 January without a nuclear test, the world will set a new record. The longest period without one single test since that first Trinity test in New Mexico in 1945!”

“What a way to start 2026. The year marking our Treaty's 30th anniversary,” Floyd concluded, invoking the young people he met in Japan.“So committed to ensuring that while Hiroshima was the first, Nagasaki will forever be the last. That is our shared responsibility. That's what we owe to the memory of Shigeru Orimen. That boy with his precious lunchbox.”

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