United States Atomic Energy Commission

The United States Atomic Energy Commission (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 Manhattan Project. In the 1960s the organizations strict and rigorous policies regarding radiation protection standards, nuclear reactor safety, plant siting, and environmental protection where being criticized. In 1974 the Congress of the United States of America officially disbanded the AEC with the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974.

Environmental
During its initial establishment and subsequent operationalization, the AEC played a key role in the institutional development of Ecosystem ecology. Specifically, it provided crucial financial resources, allowing for ecological research to take place. Perhaps even more importantly, it enabled ecologists with a wide range of groundbreaking techniques for the completion of their research. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the AEC also approved funding for numerous bio-environmental projects in the Arctic and near-Arctic. These projects were designed to examine the effects of nuclear energy upon the environment and were a part of the Commission’s attempt at creating peaceful applications of atomic energy.