China agrees to participate in nuclear test ban data sharing

Science : When North Korea detonated a nuclear weapon in February, it was obvious from seismic readings that the test had succeeded. However, the US and its allies were limited in their ability to detect any xenon nuclides that would have revealed whether the bomb used uranium or plutonium. That likely will not be a problem in the future. China has agreed to provide data from 10 of its observation sites, including 3 that measure radionuclides, to the International Data Centre (IDC). The IDC is a data sharing system maintained by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) in Vienna, which allows for global tracking of nuclear test events. China, like the US, has not ratified its signing of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty; this new openness is not seen as evidence that they plan on ratifying it.