INIS

INIS contains more than 4.2 million bibliographic records and more than 560,000 full-text documents.  Each year, about 100,000 documents are added worldwide. Since 2010 the access rate has increased about tenfold. In 2019, more than 2.1 million bibliographic searches were performed in the database. 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of INIS.

The INIS repository contains bibliographic records and full-text documents of conventional and non-conventional literature, including scientific and technical reports, conference proceedings, patents, and theses. It covers all activities of the IAEA, including nuclear technology, nuclear safety and radiation protection, safety and non-distribution, application of nuclear and isotope technologies, nuclear and high-energy physics, nuclear and radiation chemistry, nuclear applications in the bio-sciences, legal aspects, and the environmental and economic impact of nuclear and non-nuclear sources of energy.

INIS is internationally important because it covers the worldwide literature on nuclear technology. As it has been referencing literature on the civil use of nuclear energy for many years, the knowledge acquired is preserved and made globally available for free through open access.

For Germany, which will stop using nuclear power plants as sources of electrical energy by the end of 2022, this information is important in order to securely operate nuclear power plants for the remaining period of time, to shut them down in the years to come, and to ensure a responsible and sustainable waste disposal in the long term.

The INIS database contributes to preserving the relevant scientific knowledge with a view to the future, i.e., with regard to safety issues, the operation and dismantling of nuclear power plants, interim and final storage, radiation protection, and radiology.

FIZ Karlsruhe collects and indexes relevant publications in this field from Germany and forwards this information to the IAEA so that it can be included into the INIS database. FIZ Karlsruhe is also responsible for managing the German part of the multi-lingual INIS thesaurus.