International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA)

The IAEA, founded on July 29, 1957, is an Intergovernmental Organization (IGO) that is within the United Nations family.It allows membership for any state, but not regional organizations.There are currently 130 member states in the IAEA. ¹

         The IAEA is headquartered in Austria.
   This photo is from their website

Mission Statement:

“The IAEA:

is an independent intergovernmental, science and technology-based organization, in the United Nations family, that serves as the global focal point for nuclear cooperation

assists its Member States, in the context of social and economic goals, in planning for and using nuclear science and technology for various peaceful purposes, including the generation of electricity, and facilitates the transfer of such technology and knowledge in a sustainable manner to developing Member States

develops nuclear safety standards and, based on these standards, promotes the achievement and maintenance of high levels of safety in applications of nuclear energy, as well as the protection of human health and the environment against ionizing radiation

verifies through its inspection system that States comply with their commitments, under the Non-Proliferation Treaty and other non-proliferation agreements, to use nuclear material and facilities only for peaceful purposes.”²
 
 

Verification:
 

The IAEA safeguards system has the oldest on-site inspections.  It uses three techniques to verify transparency:

"materials accountancy"- Facility operators keep careful records of inventory and IAEA inspectors review the facilities as well.

"containment"- Materials that must be inspected at the next inspection are kept carefully sealed.

"surveillance"- some operations may be monitored by surveillance devices³

The safeguards system in the IAEA has expanded considerably over the past decades because more states have become party to nuclear non-proliferation treaties, especially the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT).Verification has also become more a concern after the insecurity over nuclear material in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the undercover nuclear program in Iraq.⁴
 
 
 
 

^{1“International Atomic Energy Institute.”Fridtjof Nansen Institute.2000.http://www.ngo.grida.no/ggynet/igo/iaea.htm.} 

^{2“IAEA Mission Statement.” International Atomic Energy Institute, http://www.iaea.org/worldatom/About/mission.shtml.}

³Krass, Allan S.  "Arms Control Treaty Verification."  Encyclopedia of Arms Control and
    Disarmament.  Richard Dean Burns, Ed.  Vol. 1.  New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,
    1993.

^{4 “IAEA Strategy.”International Atomic Energy Institute, http://www.iaea.org/worldatom/Documents/mts.pdf.}

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