The Island is to become a crucial lynchpin in world security after being picked as the latest location for a global alarm system monitoring nuclear explosions.

The IS51 infrasound monitoring station will help to uphold the United Nations ban on nuclear tests, but will also help to protect thousands of lives through early detection of tsunamis and hurricanes.

It will form part of the International Monitoring System (IMS) — a 'spider web' of 337 scientific facilities built to detect shock waves and movement from man-made sources and natural phenomena.

Construction of IS51 is to take place on Government land near L.F. Wade International Airport, with completion expected later this year.

The IMS network was initiated by the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) Preparatory Commission to ensure global compliance with the UN's 1996 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

It uses four different technologies — seismic, infrasound, hydroacoustic and radionuclide, with data transmitted 24 hours a day to the International Data Centre in Vienna.

As well as detecting shock waves from nuclear explosions in the oceans, atmosphere and underground, it can also locate radioactive debris in the atmosphere.

CTBTO spokeswoman Annika Thunborg said IS51 is being built "in a couple of different places around the airport" at a cost of $1 million. The CTBTO-funded facility will be constructed by the University of Mississippi and operated by the Bermuda Weather Service.

"This facility is extremely important, and it's only due to the support of Bermuda and the UK authorities that this has been able to happen," said Dr. Thunborg.

"The station in Bermuda will cover a significant area and will help us to get global coverage. We find we can pick up waves and movement in the atmosphere very well on islands in the ocean.

"It will be a recording facility that picks up any movement in the atmosphere, the infrasonic waves — a sound not audible to the human ear. It will work 24 hours a day and will also be used to detect a hurricane or tsunami. It is a very sensitive system."

Dr. Thunborg said IMS facilities in Hawaii, Japan, Australia and Malaysia were already providing tsunami warnings in the Pacific. "It's a very fast data," she said. Bermuda is also to host an international workshop on infrasound in November, to be attended by experts from around the world.

"It is very exciting to see that this station is being built in Bermuda," said Dr. Thunborg.

On October 9, 2006, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) announced it had conducted a nuclear test. It was detected by more than 20 seismic IMS stations around the world, including one in South America. The test was condemned by the United Nations Security Council who threatened to impose sanctions on DPRK.

On January 29 this year, Colombia became the 144th country to ratify the UN's Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Only nine more ratifications are needed for the Treaty to take effect.

In the IMS network, more than 220 facilities have so far been completed. The Bermuda facility will use microbarographs (acoustic pressure sensors) to detect low-frequency sound waves in the atmosphere, using between four and eight sensors located 1 to 3 km apart.

Any equipment for the station's installation and operation is exempt from Customs Duty under a remission order by Deputy Premier and Minister of Finance, Paula Cox.