Bahrain is looking at establishing a National Data Centre connected to the International Monitoring System (IMS) which helps detect important events ranging from natural disasters to nuclear explosions regionally and globally.

This was revealed by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) executive secretary Dr Robert Floyd on the sidelines of the 20th edition of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Regional Security Summit: The Manama Dialogue 2024 (MD2024) which took place at The Ritz-Carlton Bahrain.

“Bahrain has been part of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty ever since the start and is now looking at establishing its national data centre in co-operation with the CTBTO,” Dr Floyd told the GDN during an interview.

“Every country that is a member of the CTBTO has the right to have access to all of the data from our global monitoring system which includes seismic data from vibrations in the Earth’s crust, sounds in the ocean, sounds in the air or radioactive material in the atmosphere from around the world.

“All of that data comes to Vienna and from there, we spread it to our state signatories. And we are looking at establishing that hub in Bahrain.”

The IMS is a global network that consists of 321 monitoring stations and 16 laboratories hosted by 89 countries around the world.

Approximately 90 per cent of these 337 facilities are already up and running, providing a steady flow of real-time data.

According to the CTBTO, the system was able to detect all of North Korea’s declared nuclear tests between 2006 and 2017, and continuously picks up a range of phenomena including earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and meteor strikes, as well as non-nuclear explosions such as the blast that devastated Beirut, Lebanon in 2020.

The CTBTO national data centre in Bahrain would not have in-built monitoring capabilities but the organisation plans to build the analytical capability in Bahrain to enable local authorities to detect nuclear explosions or natural disasters and conduct scientific research.

“The data collected from the IMS is a treasure trove when it comes to scientific research,” Dr Floyd added.

He noted that some data has been used for climate change research, noting that “some of the physics behind wave propagation, sound waves and vibrations in the ocean is very temperature-dependent”.

Bahrain ratified the CTBT in April 2004, becoming the 111th country in the world to do so.

In September this year, Foreign Ministry director-general of international co-operation Fatima Al Dhaen took part in the 11th Ministerial Meeting of the Friends of the CTBT, which was held on the sidelines of the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

She underscored Bahrain’s support for the efforts of the CTBTO in monitoring nuclear tests and containing the resulting radiological hazards, as well as the kingdom’s firm policy of supporting efforts aimed at disarming weapons of mass destruction and preventing their proliferation to preserve regional and international peace and security.

Thus far, 187 out of 196 countries internationally have signed and ratified the CTBT. Nine countries have not ratified the treaty, of which China, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Russia and the US have already signed the treaty, whereas India, North Korea and Pakistan have not signed it.

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