NSA is a comprehensive collection of international nuclear science and technology literature for the period 1948 through 1976, pre-dating the prestigious INIS database, which began in 1970. NSA existed as a printed product (Volumes 1-33) initially, created by DOE's predecessor, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). NSA includes citations to scientific and technical reports from the AEC, the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration and its contractors, plus other agencies and international organizations, universities, and industrial and research organizations. References to books, conference proceedings, papers, patents, dissertations, engineering drawings, and journal articles from worldwide sources are also included. Abstracts and full text are provided if available.

An alphabetical arrangement of abstracts and indexes available at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) Library is listed by most current title of the publication. Other information includes description of the abstract or index, library holdings, principal sources, publisher or association, corresponding data base and the classification number. A general subject index follows the main text of the report.