---
category: Foreign Government
location: Vienna, Austria
start: 1957
summary: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an international organization
  that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use
  for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons.
tags:
- Organization
- International
- Nuclear
---

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an international organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. The IAEA inspected the Iraqi nuclear reactor at [Osirak bombing](/events/osirak-bombing/) in January 1981, under provisions of the 1968 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, to which [Iraq](/places/iraq/) was a party.[^1]

[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 1.