Experience of the Finnish National Data Centre in radionuclide analysis for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

Abstract

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) is setting very specific requirements to processing of gamma-ray spectra. All the data collected in 80 radionuclide particulate stations are transmitted to the International Data Centre (IDC), where they are analyzed. National Data Centres (NDC) are the users of IDC services. The NDC's are responsible of giving technical information to National Authorities, who have thepolitical responsibility of the compliance to the treaty. The IDC analysis is not directly informing if a nuclear test has been conducted; it is just categorizing the spectra to help the NDC's to make their decision. An NDC must have a high confidence on the correctness of the radionuclide analyses the IDC, and the NDC itself, are performing. Special attention must be paid to Event Screening, where the NDC, among other things, needs a historical record of the measured data to be able to ignore the occasionally occurring fission products, for example. The amount of data produced is too large for an NDC to process interactively. Therefore, batch-processing capabilities are required from the NDC. The Finnish NDC is involved in evaluating of the IDC processing and software and it is also proposing a radionuclide processing solution for other NDC's, as well.