follows energy research and development administration
The ___MASK93___ ( AEC ) was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by Congress to foster and control the peacetime development of atomic science and technology . President Harry S . Truman signed the McMahon / Atomic Energy Act on August 1 , 1946 , transferring the control of atomic energy from military to civilian hands , effective from January 1 , 1947 . This shift gave the first members of the AEC complete control of the plants , laboratories , equipment , and personnel assembled during the war to produce the atomic bomb . The Nuclear Regulatory Commission ( NRC ) ___MASK12___ an ___MASK99___ agency of the United States government tasked with protecting ___MASK44___ health ___MASK84___ ___MASK79___ related to nuclear energy . Established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 , the NRC began operations ___MASK2___ January 19 , ___MASK62___ as one of two successor agencies to the ___MASK93___ . Its functions include overseeing reactor ___MASK79___ ___MASK84___ security , administering reactor licensing ___MASK84___ renewal , licensing radioactive materials , radionuclide ___MASK79___ , ___MASK84___ managing the storage , security , recycling , ___MASK84___ disposal of spent fuel . The ___MASK75___ States ___MASK96___ Research ___MASK84___ Development Administration ( ERDA ) was a ___MASK75___ States government organization formed from the ___MASK98___ of the ___MASK74___ ___MASK96___ Commission ( AEC ) in 1975 . It assumed the functions of the AEC not assumed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission . The agency was created as part of the ___MASK96___ Reorganization Act of 1974 , which was passed on October 11 , 1974 in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis . The act ___MASK98___ the ___MASK74___ ___MASK96___ Commission into two new agencies : the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would regulate the commercial nuclear power industry , while the ERDA would manage the energy research ___MASK84___ development , nuclear weapons , ___MASK84___ naval reactors programs . The ___MASK96___ Research ___MASK84___ Development Administration was activated on January 19 , 1975 . The ___MASK8___ Administrator was Robert Seamans , followed by Robert W . Fri . In 1977 , ERDA was combined with the Federal ___MASK96___ Administration to form the ___MASK75___ States Department of ___MASK96___ . The ___MASK96___ Reorganization Act of 1974 ( codified at 42 U . S . ___MASK72___ . A . § 5801 ) is a United States federal law that established the Nuclear Regulatory Commission . Under the Atomic ___MASK96___ Act of 1954 , a single agency , the U . S . Atomic ___MASK96___ Commission , had responsibility for the development and production of nuclear weapons and for both the development and the safety regulation of the ___MASK45___ uses of nuclear materials . The Act of 1974 split these functions , assigning to the ___MASK96___ Research and Development Administration ( now the United States Department of ___MASK96___ ) the responsibility for the development and production of nuclear weapons , promotion of nuclear power , and other energy - related work , and assigning to the NRC the regulatory work , which does not include regulation of defense nuclear facilities . The Act of 1974 gave the Commission its collegial structure and established its major offices . ___MASK95___ radionuclide ( ___MASK52___ nuclide , radioisotope or ___MASK52___ isotope ) is an atom that has excess nuclear energy , making it unstable . This excess energy can be either emitted from the nucleus as gamma radiation , or create and emit from the nucleus a new particle ( alpha particle or beta particle ), or transfer this excess energy to ___MASK31___ of its electrons , causing that electron to be ejected as a conversion electron . During those processes , the radionuclide is said to undergo ___MASK52___ decay . These emissions constitute ionizing radiation . The unstable nucleus is more stable following the emission , but ___MASK85___ sometimes undergo ___MASK34___ decay . Radioactive decay is a random process at the level of single atoms : it is impossible to predict when ___MASK31___ particular atom ___MASK85___ decay . However , for a collection of atoms of a single element the decay rate , and thus the half - life ( t ) for that collection can be calculated from their measured decay constants . The range of the half - lives of ___MASK52___ atoms have no known limits and span a time range of over 55 orders of magnitude .