Introduction The Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), formerly known as the Nevada Test Site (NTS) is now much more than a nuclear testing site.  It is where the Department of Energy, Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and other government agencies experiment, train, and demonstrate vital global security capabilities.  The Site is Big: 1,360 square miles of federally owned land, Remote: with the nearest McDonald's restaurant 40 miles away from the work areas (as the crow flies), Safe: has an outstanding safety record, Secure: is surrounded by Nellis Test and Training Range, and Versatile: contains a variety of geologies, topographies, environments, personnel, and facilities.  The NNSS brings unique capabilities to the table that exist nowhere else in the United States.  Its personnel consist of a wide variety of scientists, engineers, technicians, and infrastructure support craft workers.  The Site's core competencies include world-class instrumentation development, fielding, data acquisition, and data reduction in support of nonproliferation treaties with regard to modeling and verification under a CTBT regime.Description of CTBTO needs that NNSS can fulfill The CTBTO International Monitoring System can locate a potential underground nuclear explosion within an ellipse comprising no more than 1,000 square kilometers.  Should a suspected nuclear explosion be detected, the CTBTO may choose to deploy equipment and an inspection team to collect evidence leading to a fact-based determination of whether a violation of the Treaty has occurred. The first task of the inspection team is to narrow the search area quickly and efficiently.  An overflight is permitted with equipment specified in the On-Site Inspection Protocol to the Treaty for the purpose of orienting the team and locating the artifacts and indications of a nuclear explosion.  Once the inspection area has been reduced to a size practical for ground based detection equipment to be deployed, other activities such as passive seismic, radiation monitoring, and environmental sampling may be deployed to further narrow the inspection area.  If credible evidence of a nuclear explosion is found, the inspection team may deploy active seismic, magnetic and gravitational field mapping, ground penetrating radar, and electrical conductivity measurements at the surface and from the air, as appropriate, to detect anomalies or artifacts. Finally, the team can perform drilling to obtain a core sample from the suspected nuclear explosion for radiochemical analysis.   Conclusions The NNSS, as the former United States nuclear testing site, has the requisite land area, flight expertise, and skill sets to exercise every aspect of an on-site inspection under the CTBT from warehouse deployment to the inspected state, initial briefing and equipment inventory, base camp setup, and working in a remote inspection area.  In addition, the NNSS has real artifacts of nuclear testing useful for determining if inspection personnel, equipment, and procedures work well in the field.Keywords:  NNSS, NTS, CTOS, RSL, STL, LO, LAO, RSLA, CTBT, CTBTO, Verification, Treaty, RNCTEC, CTOS, NCNS, NPTECThis work was done by National Security Technologies, LLC, under Contract No. DE-AC52-06NA25946 with the U.S. Department of Energy.

Nevada National Security Site and Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) support capabilities

248th National Meeting (2014)

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