| Enacted by the | 83rd United States Congress |
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| Citations | |
| Public Law | Pub.L. 83-703 |
| Stat. | 68 Stat. 919 |
| Codification | |
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The Atomic Energy Act of 1954, 42 U.S.C. § 2011 et seq., is a United States federal law that is, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, "the fundamental U.S. law on both the civilian and the military uses of nuclear materials." [1] It covers the laws for the development, regulation, and disposal of nuclear materials and facilities in the United States.
It was an amendment to the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 and substantially refined certain aspects of the law, including increased support for the possibility of a civilian nuclear industry. Notably it made it possible for the government to allow private companies to gain technical information (Restricted Data) about nuclear energy production and the production of fissile materials, allowing for greater exchange of information with foreign nations as part of Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace program, and reversed certain provisions in the 1946 law which had made it impossible to patent processes for generating nuclear energy or fissile materials.