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. Public Law 585, 79th Congress. 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.