Visit of the delegation from Norway to KNDC

On May 22, 2023 the Norwegian Ambassador, and the delegation from Norwegian Seismological Centre (NORSAR) visited Kazakhstan National Data Center of the IGR NNC RK in Almaty within the visit to the National Nuclear Center of the Republic of Kazakhstan.  The NORSAR delegation was presented by: Anne Strømmen Lycke – CEO of NORSAR, Arve E. Mjelva  - Deputy CEO,  Volker Oye  - Head of Department Applied Seismology, Ben Dando – Head of Department Test Ban Treaty Verification,  Jon Magnus Christensen –  Head of Department NDC.

KNDC and NORSAR have been working together since 2001. A range of research projects related to seismic monitoring of earthquakes and nuclear explosions has been accomplished in close cooperation with NORSAR. In 2010, the International Training Center in support of the CTBTO was established and operated successfully on the base of KNDC under the financial support provided by Norwegian MFA and NORSAR for the training of specialists – seismologists working for the Data Centers in Central Asia Republics.  

In KNDC, the guests were greeted by the Director General of the NNC RK -  Batyrbekov E.G., Deputy of the Director General – Berezin S.A. The Head of KNDC, Mikhailova N.N. has showed the Data Center and the system of acquisition and processing of data arriving from seismic and infrasound stations of the NNC RK, data exchange process with the International centers. The guests visited the archive of historical seismograms containing nuclear explosions records. Mikhailova N.N. showed a presentation on joint work and cooperation results of two Centers for more than 20 years.

After that the guests from Norway together with the Norway’s Ambassador to Central Asia countries, John Mikal Kvistad, went to Kurchatov.  They have visited the former Semipalatinsk Test Site – Opytnoye Polye experimental field, “Baykal-1” research reactor, laboratories, test bench of Kazakhstan material research tokamak, Kurchatov-Cross seismic array included into the International Monitoring System.