Aerial and ground-based inspections of mine sites in the Western U.S.-implications for on-site inspection overflights, under the CTBT

摘要

The verification regime of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) provides for the possibility of On-Site Inspections (OSI's) to resolve questions concerning suspicious events which may have been clandestine nuclear tests. Overflights by fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft, as part of an OSI, are permitted by the Treaty. These flights are intended to facilitate the narrowing of the inspection area, from an initial permissible 1000 km(sup 2), and to help select the locations to deploy observers and ground-based sensors (seismic, radionuclides, . . .) Because of the substantial amount of seismicity generated by mining operations worldwide, it is expected that mine sites and mine districts would be prime candidates for OSI'S. To gain experience in this context, a number of aerial and ground-based mine site inspections have been performed in the Western U.S. by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory since 1994. These inspections are part of a broad range of CTBT mining-related projects conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy and its National Laboratories. The various sites are described next, and inferences are made concerning CTBT OSI'S. All the mines are legitimate operations, with no implication whatsoever of any clandestine tests.