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BY VANESSA C ROLLE
GUARDIAN STAFF
REPORTER
Fresh from a
workshop in Jamaica, Ambassador for the Environment
Keod Smith said the Bahamas could reap many practical
benefits by signing on to a 1996 nuclear test ban
treaty.
Mr Smith gave a
report to the BEST Commission on Tuesday at the Sir
Cecil Wallace-Whitfield Building after returning from
a three-day workshop in St. Ann's, Jamaica sponsored
by the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBO).
The Comprehensive
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty aims at the preservation of
the environment via an existing global monitoring
system for detecting and providing evidence on nuclear
explosions.
The workshop
focused on International Cooperation and National
Implementation of the treaty for Caribbean States.
Ambassador Smith
said that The Bahamas could benefit from this
monitoring system of stations set-up, or to be set-up
by virtue of the operation of the treaty.
It would also be
efficient and cost-effective in our national
environmental protection and conservation efforts, he
said, as whatever is detected is recorded in data form
and routed in real-time to global monitoring stations.
This data is also
processed through a $10 million supercomputer located
in Vienna, Austria where it is analyzed to determine
what caused the activity detected, Mr Smith advised.
The result of such
analysis is disseminated to member states that have a
data centre in its jurisdiction and under its control;
and where there is evidence indicative of violation,
he noted, the treaty allows for on-site inspection
covering up to 1,000 square kilometers for as long as
130 days.
The system employs
four methods of operation. Seismological monitoring
detects and locates seismic events, primarily
distinguishing between underground nuclear explosions
and earthquakes.
Hydroacoustic
monitoring detects acoustic waves produced by natural
and man-made phenomena in oceans by utilizing
hydrophones, infrasound monitoring and Radionuclide
Air Samplers, which would cover the entire Bahamas
marine area.
Infrasound
monitoring uses acoustic pressure sensors called
microbars to detect very low-frequency sound waves in
the atmosphere produced by natural and man-made
events.
Radionuclide Air
Samplers detect radioactive particles released from
atmospheric explosions or vented from underground and
underwater explosions.
Ambassador Smith
said, however that The Bahamas could benefit from
Hydro-acoustic Monitoring, and proposed that upon
becoming a signatory, the country should endeavour to
establish a very small Aperture Terminal to be able to
download and exchange data coming in from monitoring
stations via the International Data Center in Vienna.
"Imagine being
in Abaco able to hear and geographically pinpoint
unscrupulous fishermen detonating explosives in our
seas. This system can also help us to identify
sustained unlawful dredging or underwater mining that
may be going on in Exuma or Bimini Bay," said Mr.
Smith.
"The science
and technology coming out of the implementation of the
Treaty can go a long way in determining the cause of
the kind of recent unexplained death of dolphins and
whales in our waters while identifying whether such
cause was brought on by man-made activity," he
said.
"Certainly, we
would be able to police underwater activity by
entities such as AUTEC so as to assure contractual
compliance as to what they are not permitted to
do," he said.
Becoming a
signatory to this 1996 Treaty would also bring The
Bahamas in harmony with its 1967 intention to
discourage the creation and development of nuclear
weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean when the
Treaty of Tlatelco came into force in 1969, Mr Smith
said.
"Another
benefit that can be drawn from The Bahamas becoming a
signatory to the Treaty is that The Bahamas would have
increased opportunity to have Bahamians trained to
operate and maintain the hardware making up this
global monitoring system," said Mr. Smith.
"Further,
Bahamian technicians and scientists would learn how to
analyze the data collected by the monitoring system
thereby determining what is going on in our
environment," he said.
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