International Atomic Energy Agency
The
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was established in 1957 to provide assistance to
states
interested in developing
atomic energy
.
The goal of the IAEA
is to establish a system of inspection and control to ensure,
inter alia
, that the aid is not used for military purposes. The agency was started based on U.S. President Eisenhower’s “
Atoms for Peace” address
to the
United Nations General Assembly
on December 8, 1953. According to the
Statute of the IAEA
“the Agency shall seek to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world. It shall ensure, so far as it is able, that assistance provided by it or at its request or under its supervision or control is not used in such a way as to further any military purpose."
The IAEA Secretariat is headquartered at the
Vienna International Centre
in Vienna, Austria. The IAEA is an independent
international organization
. The IAEA’s relationship with the
United Nations
is
regulated
by a series of
treaties
that require the IAEA to keep the United Nations informed of its activities by submitting reports on its activities to the General Assembly at each regular session. The text of the Agency’s Agreements with the United Nations, October 30, 1959, IAEA Doc. INFCIRC/11, is available
here
.
[Last updated in March of 2023 by the Wex Definitions Team ]
Keywords
wex