The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was established following the proposal made by US President Eisenhower in 1953 to create an international entity within the United Nations aimed at promoting the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes (“Atoms for peace”). After lengthy deliberations, the Agency was created in 1957 as an independent organization. Although it was established outside the UN system and it is therefore ruled by its own autonomous Statute, the Agency maintains close relations with the UN General Assembly and Security Council, to which it regularly reports.
The Agency’s decade-long commitment in favour of “Atoms for peace” received an important acknowledgement in 2005, when the Agency was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way”. The Agency’s decade-long commitment in favour of “Atoms for peace” received an important acknowledgement in 2005, when the Agency was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way”. The IAEA currently has 180 Member States and has become a cornerstone for cooperation in the nuclear field at global level.
The IAEA’s activities are both financed through funds of the ordinary budget and through voluntary contributions and revolve around three main pillars:
I) Science and Technology: assisting Member States in the planning and use of nuclear science and technologies for peaceful purposes within the context of their social and economic development goals and facilitating a sustainable transfer of nuclear knowledge and technologies to developing countries;
II) Safety and Security: developing nuclear safety e security standards and, on the basis of such standards, promoting the achievement of the highest levels of safety and security in the application of nuclear energy, with the purpose of protecting human health and the environment;
III) Verification and Safeguards: verifying, through its own inspection system, that Member States comply with the obligations deriving from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and from other non-proliferation agreements on the use of nuclear materials and installations for exclusively peaceful purposes. To this end, the Agency concludes safeguards agreements with Member States, by which the States accept the IAEA’s powers of inspection. These powers can be further reinforced through the application of the Additional Protocol.
In this respect, the IAEA is the lynchpin of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime owing to its verification activities of the safeguards agreements of Non-Nuclear States that are part of the NPT. Pursuant to this Treaty. Non-Nuclear States thus retain their right to develop nuclear programmes for the exclusive civil usage of nuclear energy and the IAEA, entrusted by the NPT, has the task to ensure that these states do not use nuclear energy for non-peaceful purposes. The verification activities have a direct connection to the UN Security Council and its Resolutions on nuclear non-proliferation, as was the case with Iraq in the 1990s and currently with the Iranian nuclear programme.
The IAEA has three main bodies: the General Conference, the Board of Governors and the Secretariat. The latter, consisting of a team of over 2,500 professionals and administrative staff from more than 100 countries, guarantees the institutional continuity of the organization and performs administrative functions. The Conference and the Board are instead the policy-making organs of the Agency. The Conference consists of the representatives of all Member States. It meets every year to discuss and approve the programme and annual budget of the Agency as well as to decide on other matters raised by the Board of Governors, the Director General or Member States. The Conference decides, in particular, on the entry of a new Member State and on any amendments to the Statute. The Board is a smaller organ, where 35 Member States are represented. It meets five times a year in order to prepare the work of the Conference and the proposals to be discussed. It approves the safeguards agreements and the publication of the IAEA’s safety and security standards and it is in charge of nominating the Director General, whose appointment will then have to be approved by the General Conference.
The Secretariat of IAEA is headquartered at the Vienna International Centre (VIC). Regional offices are in Geneva, New York, Toronto and Tokyo. Furthermore, the Agency supports research centers in Vienna (Seibersdorf), Munich and Trieste.
The current Director General of the Agency is Rafael Mariano Grossi, who is assisted by six Deputy Director Generals, each of whom leads one of the Agency’s six Departments: Management, Nuclear Sciences and Applications, Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Safety and Security, Technical Cooperation and Safeguards.
Italy and the IAEA
Italy joined the IAEA upon its establishment in 1957 and it is interesting to notice how the Law ratifying and implementing the Agency’s Statute (Law No 876 of 27 September 1957) was passed just over a month after the Law implementing the Statute of the United Nations (Law No 848 of 17 agosto 1957), which is a clear sign of the importance and priority given by Italy to the role of the Agency from the very beginning. Italy is the seventh financial contributor as regards the ordinary budget and it is among the main donors as regards the voluntary contributions to the Technical Cooperation Fund, particularly in favour of developing countries.
Italy’s commitment within the IAEA takes place in each of the large areas of activity mentioned above. In the development sector the “Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture”, a model of cooperation between UN agencies for the peaceful application of nuclear science and technologies in a safe and effective way, was created within the IAEA’s Secretariat over 50 years ago, on 1 October 1964. Nuclear applications provide specific contributions to tackle issues such as food safety, livestock production and health, crops improvement, pest control and the sustainable use of limited resources. Through the appropriate use of nuclear technologies for a sustainable agriculture and food safety, the Joint FAO/IAEA Division contributes to achieving the Millennium Development Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Italy actively contributes to promoting nuclear security to fight terrorism, a global challenge in which the Agency plays a key role. In 2011, in close cooperation with the IAEA, our country established an International School on Nuclear Security, within the ICTP-International Center for Theoretical Physics in Trieste. Thanks to the Italian voluntary contributions to the IAEA Nuclear Security Fund, the School’s courses train experts mainly coming from developing countries. This initiative aims to support the creation of a global network of highly qualified professional who are able to face the complex issue of nuclear security at national and transnational level in a comprehensive way.
Furthermore, the Agency has four Italian Collaborating Centres: Centro Agricoltura Ambiente Giorgio Nicoli (Crevalcore), State-owned decommissioning company Sogin, Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste and Politecnico di Milano.
Finally, Italy supports the IAEA’s efforts in favour of a more and more effective system of verification against nuclear proliferation, by sustaining the widest possible application of the Additional Protocol to the safeguards agreements as well as of the State Level Concept aimed at making the application of safeguards more efficient and effective in view of the growth of nuclear materials and sites on a global scale.
Last update: March 2025