Limited Test Ban Treaty

Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT) 1963 117 countries prohibits nuclear weapons tests or any other nuclear explosion in the atmosphere, in outer space, and under water. 

Limited Test Ban Treaty signed by the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union. Banned nuclear tests in the oceans, in the atmosphere, and in outer space. 

Subsequent information from the Soviet side revealed a strong desire among some in the Soviet military to run the blockade and fire on U.S. warships. The Cuban Missile Crisis strengthened the Soviet leadership s view that it must achieve nuclear weapon parity with the United States in terms of number of weapons and the ability to deliver them against targets in the United States. It is also led to a conviction that the USSR must never again back down in such a situation. The crisis also contributed to Khrushchev s retirement and contributed momentum for concluding the 1963 Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT). See also ABLE ARCHER 83. 

PROJECT VELA. The United States initiated Project Vela to aid in verifying compliance with the Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT) of... 

The Threshold Test Ban Treaty of 1974 limited the yield of underground nuclear weapon tests to 150 kilotons (the equivalent of the explosive force of approximately 150,000 tonnes of trinitrotoluene (TNT). 

There are very many applications of gamma-ray spectrometry. Having already discussed environmental measurements in Chapter 16, in this chapter I discuss a number which, to me, seem to be of particular interest. Each of them deserves a much broader treatment but time and space limit me to a general introduction. Each of them draws upon the principles developed in previous chapters, the idea being to illustrate how academic, and perhaps theoretical, ideas find their expression in practical uses. As it happens, the examples are related in the sense that in these applications gamma spectrometry could be said to help make ordinary life safer measurements in support of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) help to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons, waste monitoring helps to ensure that radioactive waste is disposed of properly and safeguards measurements make sure that nuclear material is properly accounted for. 

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