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27 July 2023

The Origins of the International Atomic Energy Agency

Bertrand Goldschmidt

On 23 October 1956 in New York, 81 member countries of the United Nations Organization or of its specialized agencies adopted the Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which was to go into formal operation before the end of 1957. A major step towards world-wide control of nuclear energy thus came to be taken more than ten years after the idea of establishing such control had been launched - the first tentative efforts, from 1946 to 1948, having ended in failure. The account which follows is an attempt to retrace this "prehistory" of the IAEA. The Policy of Secrecy Three months after the end of the Second World War, on 15 November 1945, 

The heads of the American, British and Canadian Governments, meeting in Washington, decided to adopt a policy of secrecy in the nuclear field until a system had been established for the effective international control of the new and formidable source of power. By also deciding to buy up all available uranium, they thus created a perfect policy of non-proliferation based on blocking the transfer of the two things essential for nuclear development: the technical knowledge and uranium, both of which are widely dispersed in the world today.

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