Mitigating Disasters

Question 1

What are scientific uses of IMS? And how have they been applied?

Answer 1

The IMS can be used to

1. study our planet and species like whales
2. climate change;
3. to warn of tsunami and radiation;
4. monitoring for nuclear test explosions.

Question 2

What were major environmental disasters that made use of the IMS?

Answer 2

December 2004: Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
January 2010: earthquake in Haiti
March 2011: earthquake and tsunami in Japan

Question 3

What organizations does the CTBT collaborate with?

Answer 3

Intergovernmental orgs:

1. Intergovernmental Oceanographic commission (IOC)
2. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
3. International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
4. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
5. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR)
6. The world meteorological organization (WMO)

Question 4

What was CTBTO role in the Fukushima disaster?

Answer 4

On March 2011, an earthquake under the Pacific Ocean triggered a 10 meter high tsunami that devastated that north eastern seaboard of Japan. When the tsunami struck the Dukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, cooling systems failed for three of the reactors. It was the worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl accident of 1986, and given the most severe classification on the international Nuclear Event Scale.

Within 24 hours more than 35 IMS radionuclide stations were providing information on the spread of radioactive particles and noble gases