Atomic Fission: The Breakup of the Atomic Energy Commission and the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 (NUREG/BR-0533)

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Date Published: February 2025

Thomas Wellock, Historian, U.S.NRC
Eric Boyle, Historian, U.S. DOE

Office of the Secretary
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington, DC 20555-0001

Abstract

On October 11, 1974, President Gerald Ford signed the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 (ERA), which separated the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) into two new agencies, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA). ERDA and the NRC began operations on January 19, 1975. On October 1, 1977, ERDA was one of three agencies merged into the new U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). This history provides the first detailed account of the passage of the ERA and the challenges the NRC and ERDA/DOE faced in implementing the law. The story concludes in the early 1980s when the NRC and the DOE survived efforts to dismantle them. 

The views expressed in this history are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or the Department of Energy, and they do not in any way represent an official position of the NRC or DOE.