The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is constantly engaged in developing and revising a set of standard rules developed by international consensus to serve as a reference for member states when they implement their own national frameworks. These standards may be divided into fundamentals and requirements, plus guides for their application. Together they make a fundamental tool for achieving and maintaining a high level of nuclear and physical safety.

To that end, the International Atomic Energy Agency works with experts from many countries to ensure the quality, consistency and thoroughness of its reference framework and to update it in the light of the experience and knowledge gained in the application of the standards on the national level.

The Spanish Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) is an active participant in various working groups and committees that develop and revise the IAEA standards and reference guides. The committees define generic safety standards and specific safety standards for the various types of facilities and activities to be regulated, such as nuclear power plants, radioactive facilities, fuel cycle facilities, nuclear research reactors, radioactive waste and spent fuel storage facilities, mining activities and the treatment and transport of radioactive materials.