The CNS is an incentive convention that aims to, inter alia, achieve and maintain a high level of nuclear safety worldwide through the enhancement of national measures and international co-operation including, where appropriate, safety-related technical co-operation.

• Adopted: 17 June 1994
• Opened for signature: 20 September 1994
• Entered into force: 24 October 1996
• Parties: 98 parties (including EURATOM) (see table below)

More information on the CNS, including the text and current status, is available here.

The following articles related to the CNS were published in the Nuclear Law Bulletin and Principles and Practice of International Nuclear Law:

• The Convention on Nuclear Safety, by O. Jankowitsch (NLB 54, p. 9).
• The IAEA Nuclear Safety Conventions: An example of Successful "Treaty Management", by G. Handl (NLB 72, p. 7).
• The "Incentive" Concept as Developed in the Nuclear Safety Conventions and its Possible Extension to Other Sectors, by T. De Wright (NLB 80, p. 29).
• The post-Fukushima Daiichi response: The role of the Convention on Nuclear Safety in strengthening the legal framework for nuclear safety, by P. L. Johnson (NLB 91, p. 7).
• Towards a new international framework for nuclear safety: Developments from Fukushima to Vienna, by E. Durand‑Poudret (NLB 95, p. 27).
• Treaty implementation applied to conventions on nuclear safety, by M. Montjoie (NLB 96, p. 9).
• Inside nuclear baseball: Reflections on the development of the safety conventions, by C. Stoiber (NLB 100, p. 61).
• The impact of the major nuclear power plant accidents on the international legal framework for nuclear power, by S.G. Burns (NLB 101, p. 7), updated in Principles and Practice of International Nuclear Law, p. 83.
• A perspective on key legal considerations for performance-based regulating, by E. Dandy (NLB 103, p. 7).
• Responding to the call: Assessing international legal frameworks for response to incidents involving floating nuclear power plants, by J. Karcz (NLB 110, p. 37).
• Nuclear fusion: Legal Aspects, by W. Tonhauser and K. T. Olajos (NLB 111, p. 57).
• International legal framework on nuclear safety: Developments, challenges and opportunities, by W. Tonhauser, A. Wetherall and L. Thiele (Principles and Practice of International Nuclear Law, p. 121).
• Regulation, licensing and oversight of nuclear activities, by S.G. Burns, K.S. Nick, C. Raetzke and L. Thiele (Principles and Practice of International Nuclear Law, p. 167).

* Country with at least one nuclear power plant in operation.

** Subject to an entry into force date of 13 July 2025. 

*** Subject to an entry into force date of 24 July 2025.