CTBT Overview Treaty Summary Links to Treaty Texts
See the General Nuclear Weapons Developments file for major recent developments
Archived CTBT Ratification and Nuclear Testing Developments
CTBT Negotiations History
To return to the main Nuclear Disarmament Treaties and Agreements entry, see the Arms Control Treaties and Agreements file
See also: 
Semipalatinsk Test Site
Novaya Zemlya Test Site

Overview

TREATY STATUS
Signed by the United States: 24 September 1996
Signed by the Russian Federation: 24 September 1996
Ratified by the Russian Federation: 30 June 2000

As of 16 August 2001, 161 nations have signed the treaty, including all five nuclear weapon states. Of these, 79 states have ratified the treaty, including three nuclear weapon states: France, the United Kingdom, and the Russian Federation. The CTBT names 44 countries known to possess nuclear reactors that must deposit their instruments of ratification for the treaty to enter into force. As of 10 November 2000, 41 of these states have signed the treaty and 31 have ratified it.

US President Bill Clinton submitted the treaty to the US Senate for its advice and consent on ratification in September 1997. The US Senate voted against the ratifying the treaty on 13 October 1999.

Although the CTBT is not yet in force, United States and Russia have not performed any nuclear tests since 1992 and have been observing a testing moratorium. China conducted its most recent nuclear tests in 1996.

TREATY SUMMARY
The CTBT prohibits all parties to the treaty from carrying out all nuclear explosions (including so-called "peaceful nuclear explosions," or PNEs), allowing other states to carry out nuclear explosions at any place within its jurisdiction, and assisting other states in carrying out any nuclear explosions.  The treaty does not ban other activities involving a controlled release of nuclear energy, including hydrodynamic or subcritical tests involving nuclear materials, which have been performed by both the United States and the Russian Federation as part of their respective nuclear warhead stewardship programs. 

The CTBT also contains provisions establishing a verification regime. Its components include the International Monitoring System (IMS), a global nuclear explosion monitoring system with seismic, hydroacoustic, radionuclide, and infrasound detection capabilities, on-site inspections, confidence-building measures, and consultations and clarifications. When fully operational, the IMS will consist of 321 monitoring stations and 16 radionuclide laboratories. State parties to the treaty are obligated to establish verification facilities on their national territories that would provide data to the International Monitoring System, participate in confidence-building measures, and permit on-site inspections of objects on its national territory. An on-site inspection would require an affirmative vote of 30 out of 57 members of the Executive Council.

TREATY DOCUMENTS
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Signatories/Ratifiers. Fact Sheet Released by the Bureau of Arms Control, Washington, DC, 15 November 2000.

Page last updated 22 August 2001
For more recent developments, see the General Nuclear Weapons Developments file.

Comments or questions? E-mail Nikolai Sokov:  nsokovATmiis.edu.

This material is produced independently for NTI by the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of and has not been independently verified by NTI or its directors, officers, employees, agents. Copyright © 2003 by MIIS.

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