The United States Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) was a

United States government The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct ...

organization formed from the split of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in 1975. It assumed the functions of the AEC not assumed by the

Nuclear Regulatory Commission The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with protecting public health and safety related to nuclear energy. Established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, the ...

. The agency was created as part of the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, which was passed on October 11, 1974, in the wake of the

1973 oil crisis In October 1973, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) announced that it was implementing a total oil embargo against countries that had supported Israel at any point during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, which began after Eg ...

. The act split the Atomic Energy Commission into two new agencies: the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would regulate the commercial

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by ...

industry, while the ERDA would manage the energy

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as OKB, experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage ...

nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear exp ...

s, and naval reactors programs. The Energy Research and Development Administration was established on January 19, 1975. The first administrator was Robert Seamans, followed by Robert W. Fri. In 1977, ERDA was merged with the

Federal Energy Administration The Federal Energy Administration (FEA) was a United States government organization created in 1974 to address the 1970s energy crisis, and specifically the 1973 oil crisis.Staff report (May 8, 1974). Energy Crisis Still With Us, Nixon Warns. ''L ...

to form the

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear w ...

References

External links

DOE.gov: History of ERDA—Energy Research and Development Administration
* Historical technical reports digitized by the Technical Report Archive & Image Library fo
ERDA
{{DEFAULTSORT:Energy Research And Development Administration Governmental nuclear organizations Nuclear history of the United States Nuclear weapons infrastructure of the United States Defunct independent agencies of the United States government Government agencies established in 1974 1974 establishments in the United States 1977 disestablishments in the United States United States Atomic Energy Commission United States Department of Energy Energy research 1973 oil crisis