International safeguards in the context of non-proliferation, IAEA News Features, no. 7, Vienna, Austria, April 1990

In operation since the 1960s, the safeguards system of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is a central component of the world's commitment to control the spread of nuclear weapons. Under agreements that States conclude with the IAEA, Agency inspectors regularly visit nuclear facilities to verify records that State authorities keep on the whereabouts of nuclear material under their control, check IAEA-installed instruments and surveillance equipment, and confirm physical inventories of nuclear materials. They then prepare detailed reports to the State concerned and to the IAEA. Taken together, these and other safeguards measures provide independent, international verification that governments are living up to their commitments not to engage in the proliferation of nuclear weapons.