29 August: International Day Against Nuclear Experiments

The UN General Assembly decided on 2 December 2009 that August 29th should be the International Day Against Nuclear Experiments. The President of the UN was then tasked with organizing an annual meeting of senior officials to commemorate and promote International Day Against Nuclear Experiments.

The day is dedicated to raising awareness and education of the public about the effects of nuclear weapons tests or other nuclear explosions and the need to stop them, as an important way to achieve the goal of a nuclear-free world.

CTBTO, the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, has the function of verifying that the Covenant is not violated. It can be said that the matter has rarely been more pressing than just now. The Icelandic Radiation Safety Authority is responsible for one of the measuring stations and has just completed the operation of a new instrument for this purpose. It is an automatic instrument that measures and quantifies gamma-emitting material in the atmosphere.

The data from the system is also useful for scientific purposes and has an emergency preparedness value in various fields.