Dr. ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if departmental scientists or scientific consultants to his Department have made any assessment of the report published in May by the United States Congress Office of Technology assessment on the comparative merits of using seismological verification techniques at distances many hundreds of miles from a nuclear test, against near-explosion use of the corrtex hydrodynamic measuring instrument.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonMy Department has studied the report with interest. However, the continuous reflectometry for radius versus time experiments (CORRTEX) verification technique is designed to obtain accurate yield assessments of known and notified nuclear tests through the co-operation of both parties to any treaty in which the use of CORRTEX is permitted. The technique is of no value in monitoring unnotified tests, particularly if conducted away from known testing sites.