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7343297
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Arms Control and Disarmament Agency Threshold Test Ban Treaty [Fact Sheet]
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7343297
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document
title
Arms Control and Disarmament Agency Threshold Test Ban Treaty [Fact Sheet]
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White House Press Releases (Ford Administration)
Press Releases
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7343297
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31
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1976-03-31
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3
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1976
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Digitized from Box 23 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
MARCH 31, 1976
FACT SHEET
ARMS CONTROL AND DISARMAMENT AGENCY
THRESHOLD TEST BAN TREATY
Following negotiations in Mos cow in the spring of 1974, an agreement
was reached during the July summit meeting which bans nuclear weapon
tests having a yield above 150 kilotons (equivalent to 150,000 tons
of TNT). Both nations have the capability by their own national
technical means to distinguish between underground nuclear explosions
and earthquakes when the yield is this high. The treaty contains a
specific commitment by the parties not to interfere with the national
technical means of verification of the other, and provides for regular
consultations to take care of any questions which might arise relating
to the implementation of its provisions.
The treaty is accompanied by a protocol detailing technical data to
be exchanged and limiting testing to specific designated test sites to
assist verification. The data to be exchanged includes information on
the geology of the testing áreas. Geological data--including such factors
as density of rock formation, water saturation, and depth of the water
table--are useful in verifying test yields because of the seismic signal
produced by a given underground nuclear explosion varies with these
factors at the test location. After an actual test has taken place,
the geographic coordinates of the test location are to be furnished to
the other party, to help in placing the test in the proper geological
formation and thus in assessing the yield. Other information available
to the United States will be used to cross check the data provided.
The treaty also stipulates that data will be exchanged on a certain
number of "calibration tests." By establishing the correlation between
given yields of explosions at the specified sites and the seismic signals
produced, this exchange will help improve assessments on both sides of
the yields of explosions based on the measurements derived from their
seismic instruments. The tests used for calibration purposes may be
tests which have been conducted in the past or may be new tests.
Agreements to exchange the detailed data described above represents a
significant degree of direct cooperation by the two major nuclear powers
in the effort to control nuclear armaments. For the first time, each
party will make available to the other data relating to its nuclear
weapons program.
For the purposes of the treaty, all underground nuclear explosions at
specified test sites will be considered nuclear weapon tests. Engineering
applications of peaceful nuclear explosions (PNEs) must be at locations
away from the specified test sites. Since it is not possible to dis-
tinguish between the technology of nuclear devices for peaceful engineering
purposes and that for nuclear weapons, the question of how a program for
peaceful nuclear explosions might be carried out without violating the
threshold treaty is a complicated one. Article III of the treaty committed
the United States and the Soviet Union to pursue this problem in subse-
quent discussions.
These discussions began in Mos cow in October 1974 and have continued to
the present--in a series of six rounds. As noted in today's statement,
considerable progress has been made and negotiations are continuing in
Moscow to resolve the few remaining issues. We remain hopeful that a
satisfactory PNE agreement can be concluded in the near future.
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