![\"Lassina](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/09\/lassina-zerbo-500.jpg\" "\\"lassina-zerbo-500\\"")
The CTBT organization has 196 member states \u2014 183 that have signed the treaty and 164 that have ratified it. But the treaty has not entered into force because it still needs ratification by eight countries involved in originally negotiating it.<\/p>\n
While waiting for the CTBT to enter into force, the organization has spent more than $1 billion on an international monitoring system that can detect a nuclear test by the regime in Iran or any other country, Zerbo said. It detected all three tests by North Korea.<\/p>\n
The system uses four technologies \u2014 170 seismic stations to pick up shock waves from any underground explosion, “hydro-acoustic” monitoring to pick up anything that happens underwater, 48 “infrasound” stations to detect low-frequency waves in the atmosphere that can travel long distances, and 80 “radionucleide” stations to sample the air for radiation, which Zerbo called “the smoking gun.”<\/p>\n
The highly sophisticated monitoring systems can also detect earthquakes, tsunamis, air contamination, the movement of whales and the trajectory of space launches, as well as meteors including the ones in Russia in February 2013 and over Thailand on Sept. 7, he said.<\/p>\n