Disclaimer: The information was last updated on 18 August 2016. This list is updated on a regular basis. For the latest up-to-date information, please consult the web sites for Calendar of Events (http://www.ctbto.org/the-organization/calendar-of-events/) and Workshops, Training and Exercises (http://www.ctbto.org/the-organization/workshops-training-and-exercises/) 22 August 2 September 2016 Dates Venue Meeting/Event Target audience/participants Descriptions (Objectives, Deliverables, etc.) Lead Training Course on NDC NDC technical staff and authorized Capacity Building: Access users. To understand the roles of NDCs in the verification regime; and Analysis of To build and/or improve NDC capabilities; Radionuclide IMS Data To provide participants with sufficient knowledge for accessing and and Products using IMS data and products; and To provide practical experience in analyzing IMS radionuclide data. Participants should have: - experience in radionuclide data analysis and/or similar experience related to nuclear-test-ban verification; and - Linux background and some SQL experience. The agenda of the training course will include: Methods to access IMS data and products; NDC support/performance reports; IMS data, acquisition, processing and storage: standard software packages; Necessary NDC s resources to process IMS data and analyse products; Practical sessions on data and products access, and use of standard software packages, for processing and analysis of particulate and noble gas radionuclide data as well as pot processing of atmospheric transport modelling output. 14 15 September (to be confirmed) Addis Ababa African Conference to Promote the CTBT in All Its Aspects All African states and other relevant stakeholders Objectives of the Conference: Raise awareness on the roles and responsibilities of National Authorities and National Data Centres Raise awareness with regard to relations with other (potential) stakeholders Assess the status and needs for assistance Action plan for assistance and cooperation Nexus between the CTBT and Pelindaba Treaty Joint Programme (CTBTO, AUC, AFCONE, PAP, etc.) LEGREL
Technical Training for Waveform Station Operators of Joint IMS and USGS Stations 26 30 September Station Operators of IMS Auxiliary Seismic Stations which also form part of the GSN (USGS/ASL) Seismic Network and directly concerned with the operation, maintenance and repair of equipment at these stations. To provide Station Operators with the basic knowledge and technical understanding on the operations, maintenance and management of an IMS station using waveform technology; and To provide hands-on training for the various operational and maintenance procedures. Invited States Signatories should nominate participants who are station operators involved in the operation and maintenance of the following stations: AFI, FURI, GUMO, HNR, KOWA, LVC, MSKU, PMG, PTGA, RCBR, SDV, SJG, SFJD. The agenda will include: Overview of sensors, digitizers and equipment used in IMS Stations covering all hardware functionality, input and output requirements, appropriate applications, installation techniques, initial set-up parameters and methods of calibration; Demonstration, as well as hands-on training, into digitizer software functionality when paired with sensors, covering information management, configuration and data monitoring; Extensive demonstration and hands-on opportunity to connect and pair sensors to digitizers which focuses on field installation issues, required common and specialized tools and testing equipment, initial set-up parameters, common error indicators, likely problem causes and potential fixes, and fine tuning the installed system to achieve desired data quality results. 3 7 October Technical Training for Station Operators of Seismic Stations with Guralp Equipment Station operators of IMS stations u sing Guralp equipment directly concerned with the operation, maintenance and repair of such equipment. Invited States Signatories should nominate participant(s) who are station operators involved in the operation and maintenance of the following stations: PS02, PS05, PS09, PS17, PS19, PS45, AS002, AS007, AS051, AS052, AS053, AS054, AS055, AS056, AS057, AS059, AS066, AS074, AS082, AS094, AS097, IS07, IS09, IS14 To provide Station Operators with the basic knowledge and technical understanding on the operations, maintenance and management of an IMS station using waveform technology; and To provide hands-on training ON Guralp equipment and the Standard Station Interface (SSI). The agenda will include: Overview of Guralp equipment; Overview of the SSI data collection and transmission software; Demonstration covering all hardware and software functionality, input and output requirements, appropriate applications, installation techniques, initial set-up parameters and methods of calibration; Demonstration, as well as hands-on training, into Guralp digitizer software functionality when paired with sensors, covering information management, configuration and data monitoring; Demonstration and hands-on opportunity to connect and pair sensors to digitizers which focuses on field installation issues, initial set-up parameters, common error indicators, likely problem causes and potential fixes, and fine tuning the installed system to achieve desired data quality results;
3 7 October Technical Training for Station Operators of Seismic Stations with Guralp Equipment (continued) Overview of Operational Manuals (IMS and ); Concept of operations and maintenance in the Provisional Technical Secretariat (PTS); Communication with the PTS; reporting tools (IRS and IRS client); Problem reporting, configurations change request, configuration change notification, outage request; Discussion on typical operation and maintenance situations. 5 7 October Expert Meeting on Ar Phenomenology 10 external participants Objective: - To discuss Ar phenomenology and its implications for noble gas (NG) sampling, processing and data interpretation. 10 21 October Training Course on NDC Capacity Building: Access and Analysis of Radionuclide IMS Data and Products NDC technical staff and authorized users; Participants should have: - experience in radionuclide data analysis and/or similar experience related to nuclear-test-ban verification; and - Linux background and some SQL experience. To understand the roles of NDCs in the verification regime; To build and/or improve NDC capabilities; To provide participants with sufficient knowledge for accessing and using IMS data and products; and To provide practical experience in analyzing IMS radionuclide data. The agenda of the training course will include: Methods to access IMS data and products; NDC support/performance reports; IMS data, acquisition, processing and storage: standard software packages; Necessary NDC s resources to process IMS data and analyse products; Practical sessions on data and products access, and use of standard software packages, for processing and analysis of particulate and noble gas radionuclide data as well as pot processing of atmospheric transport modelling output. 17 21 October Belgium Technical Training for Radionuclide Station Operators with Canberra Equipment Station Operators of IMS radionuclide stations equipped with Canberra detectors who are directly concerned with the operation, maintenance and repair of such equipment. Objective: To provide hands-on training and practical lessons to Station Operators on the operation, maintenance and repair of the Canberra Gamma Detector System manufactured by Canberra Industries Inc.
Lest, Slovakia 16 28 October 3TC Introductory Course 85 external participants Increase the roster of surrogate inspectors by approximately 50 experts for participation in major field exercises; Maintain the reservoire of experts from various States Signatories for partcipation in integrated field exercises as well as in advanced training and exercise activities and testing of equipment; Provide the participating experts with interdiction training and exercise to develop skills essentials for all Inspection Team Members for the conduct of on-site inspections. 27 28 October (to be confirmed) Beijing, China CTBT Scientist-to- Scientist Workshop 35 to 40 key scientists and technicians from leading institutions and government agencies in China, other Annex 2 States and the PTS. The Workshop will: Provide a forum for substantive, and politically neutral, technical discussions between remaining Annex 2 States scientist, and the PTS. Build on SnT15 and on relationships between scientists involved in nuclear test monitoring related fields in the remaining Annex 2 States, as well as help establish trust and confidence in the Treaty s verification regime. LEGREL/ 7 11 7 11 Baden, Austria Workshop 23 55 external participants Further Development of Equipment List (focusing on development of the draft equipment list for continuation period techniques while further discussing the draft equipment list of initial period techniques, based on results obtained from Workshop 19 and lessons learned from IFE14) Quito, Ecuador Infrasound Technology Workshop 2016 (ITW2016) The workshop is aimed towards all scientists, engineers, Station Operators, staff from the National Data Centres and other persons involved in infrasound technology and related fields. The purpose of ITW2016 is to create an international forum for presenting and discussing recent advancements in infrasound research and operational capabilities of global and regional networks. The main sessions of the ITW2016 will be on: IMS, and NDC Infrasound Projects; Instrumentation; Data Processing and Station Performance; Modelling & Network Performance; Analysis of Sources and Scientific Applications. 7 2 December NDC Capacity Building: NDC Waveform Analyst Training Course Technical staff / authorized users involved or to be involved in the use of IMS data and products. NDC staff is the main target group. To strengthen the capacity of the States Signatories participation in the verification regime and to enhance their use of IMS data and products for civil and scientific applications.
NDC Capacity Building: The programme includes the following: NDC Waveform Analyst Technical issues faced by NDCs after attending the 2-week NDC Training Course Capacity Building Training Course; (continued) Practical sessions on: 7 2 December Pre-requisite for participation: Participants are required to have completed a 2-week capacity building training course NDC Capacity Building: Access and Analysis of IMS Waveform Data and Products or the equivalent e-learning training course and to have experience in waveform data analysis. Having experience with UNIX/Linux operating system and SQL would also be beneficial. (i) access and use of IMS data and products; (ii) installation and use of Standard Software Packages Processing of IMS data and analysis of products; Hands-on exercises in analyzing waveform events; Practical sessions, such as how to incorporate local seismo-acoustic station data into NDC-in-a-Box software package. 14 16 Oak Ridge, United States Technical Training for Radionuclide Station Operators with ORTEC Systems (TT ORTEC Training) Invited States Signatories should nominate participant(s) who are Station Operators involved in the operation, maintenance and repair of stations with ORTEC gamma detector systems manufactured by AMETEK. Nominated individuals should be directly related to the IMS facility. To provide hands-on training and practical lessons to Station Operators on the operation, maintenance and repair of the ORTEC gamma detector system manufactured by AMETEK. 21 25 Uppsala, Sweden Advanced Technical Training for Radionuclide Station Operators with SAUNA Equipment (TT EXT. RN SAUNA ADV.) Priority will be given to operators of specific stations targeted for this training. The countries hosting these stations receive this announcement directly through official channels. To provide IMS station operators who already have experience operating SAUNA systems with the required in-depth knowledge and technical understanding of SAUNA noble gas monitoring systems in order to perform more complex operations and maintenance tasks. Invited State Signatories should nominate participant(s) who are technical staff of IMS radionuclide stations directly responsible for the operation and maintenance of SAUNA noble gas systems, preferably with more than 18 months of experience. 28 30 2016 Quality Management Workshop (QMW2016) The Workshop is intended for experts in quality management, systems performance monitoring, systems engineering and operations. The main objective of the Workshop is to review the components of the Quality Management System (QMS) of the Provisional Technical Secretariat (PTS) and elicit feedback, in order to update and enhance the system, promote a better understanding among its users, and ultimately to ensure that the system is applied and continues to fulfil its purpose. OES
2016 Quality Management OES Workshop (QMW2016) (continued) 28 30 The Workshop participants will be invited to review and provide feedback on the following: High-level review of the progress and status of the PTS QMS as a whole; Detailed examination of key elements of the PTS QMS, including: quality policy; quality manual; verification-related Process Maps Manual (KPIs); PTS Process Metrics Manual; Performance Monitoring Tools; Inventory of Procedures; Document Management System; and Glossary of CTBT Verification Related Terms; Review of the Performance Monitoring and Testing Framework and its application; and Evaluation approach to the Progressive Commissioning of the Elements of the Verification System. 28 2 December Bariloche, Argentina Workshop on Signatures of Man-Made Isotope Production (WOSMIP VI) Experts from organizations who are familiar with the man-made isotope emission issues and/or experts in monitoring and processing of isotope production facilities. The Workshop brings together experts from the Treaty monitoring and isotope production communities to understand the effects of emissions of CTBT relevant radionuclides from nuclear facilities on the global radionuclide background and to explore means of enhancing the calibration and performance of Treaty verification systems without impacting the peaceful use of nuclear technology. The main objective of the workshop is to facilitate methods for characterizing radioxenon detection in the IMS based on thorough understanding of the radioxenon background in the atmosphere, taking account of all known sources and regional variations. The agenda of the Workshop will include: Characterization of the atmospheric isotope background based on known man-made sources, including controlled source experiments; Detection of emissions or events or effluents; Recent and planned activities at isotope production facilities; Broader range of isotope sources. 30 2 December Expert Meeting ITF/FTF/Chain of Custody 15 external participants The ITF/FTF concepts represent core processes and procedures to plan and conduct an on-site inspection. This Expert Meeting aims to follow up several lessons pertaining to, inter alia, Technical Mission Reports, chain of custody issues, sample integrity that have been identified from IFE 14.
Technical Meeting on The meeting is aimed towards The objective is to continue finalization of the Validation and Finalizing the scientists, engineers and other persons Acceptance Test Plan. The focus for this particular meeting will be on Validation and Acceptance who have technical expertise in one of reviewing teh changes made since the last meeting adn to begin Test Planning the four IMS technologies, the improving the test content. Progress in this regard will be presented at functions of the and in WGB-48. performance monitoring and testing. 1 2 December The participants are expected to provide their technical input to the Validation and Acceptance Test Plan. The agenda of the meeting will include: Review of recent updates and status; Expert presentations, discussion and feedback; Validation methods, acceptance criteria and metrics for the IMS and as systems; Validation methods, acceptance criteria and metrics for specific functionalities tested in Experiment 1; Relevant lessons learned from Experiment 1; Validation methods, acceptance criteria and metrics for Experiment 2; Meeting outcomes and action items.