KOROR (Palau Horizon) — Palau has signed an international agreement reaffirming its commitment to a nuclear-free zone, and will establish a monitoring station to detect unlawful nuclear tests in the Pacific region.
President Tommy Remengesau said Palau has signed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and entered into an agreement for the installation and operation of a monitoring station in Palau which will serve as a key component in the worldwide network to monitor illegal nuclear tests.
The treaty will prohibit nuclear testing and the use of nuclear explosions for military or commercial purposes.
The treaty also provides for the establishment of monitoring stations that will identify and locate any nuclear explosion in the world.
One of the key stations will be located in Palau.
Remengesau and Ngaremlengui Gov. John Skebong have signed an agreement with the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization to allow the use of land near Palau Community College.
The organization will fund the station which can detect low-level nuclear explosions thousand of miles away.
Once the station is established, the organization will provide funds to hire local personnel that will operate and maintain the facility. Data gathered from the station will be available for the use of PCC students.
There are also plans to incorporate data in the station to monitor earthquake movements.
“Palau has led the way toward the reduction of nuclear weapons. The republic was the first nation to declare in its Constitution a commitment to a nuclear free zone. By joining the treaty, the country reaffirms its commitment with the desire that in this year of international conflict and uncertainty, no nation whether industrial and mighty or poor and developing, will resort to the awful concept of such weapons of mass destruction,” Remengesau said.
