Executive Order 9816—Providing the Transfer of Properties and Personnel to the Atomic Energy Commission

By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the statues, including the Atomic Energy Act of 1946, and as President of the United States and Commander in Chief of the Army and the Navy, it is hereby ordered and directed as follows: 1. There are transferred to the Atomic Energy Commission all interests owned by the United States or any Government agency in the following property: (a) All fissionable material; all atomic weapons and parts thereof; all facilities, equipment, and materials for the processing, production, or utilization of fissionable material or atomic energy; all processes and technical information of any kind, and the source thereof (including data, drawings, specifications, patents, patent application, and other sources) relating to the processing, production, or utilization of fissionable material or atomic energy; and all contracts, agreements, leases, patents, applications for patents, inventions and discoveries (whether patented or unpatented), and other rights of any kind concerning any such items. (b) All facilities, equipment, and materials, devoted primarily to atomic energy research and development. 2. There also are transferred to the Atomic Energy Commission all property, real or personal, tangible or intangible, including records, owned by or in the possession, custody or control of the Manhattan Engineer District, War Department, in addition to the property described in paragraph 1 above. Specific records, may be excepted from transfer to the Commission in the following manner: (a) The Secretary of War shall notify the Commission in writing as to the specific items of property or records he wishes to except; and (b) If after full examination of the facts by the Commission, it concurs in the exception, those specific items of property or records shall be excepted from transfer to the Commission; or (c) If after full examination of the facts by the Commission, it does not concur in the exception, the matter shall be referred to the President for decision. 3. The Atomic Energy Commission shall exercise full jurisdiction over all interests and property transferred to the Commission in paragraphs 1 and 2 above, in accordance with the provisions of the Atomic Energy Act of 1946. 4. Any Government agency is authorized to transfer to the Atomic Energy Commission, at the request of the Commission, any property, real or personal, tangible or intangible, acquired or used by such Government agency in connection with any of the property or interests transferred to the Commission by paragraphs 1 and 2 above. 5. Each Government agency shall supply the Atomic Energy Commission with a report on, and an accounting and inventory of, all interests and property, described in paragraphs 1, 2, and 4 above, owned by or in the possession, custody or control of such Government agency, the form and detail of such report, accounting and inventory, to be determined by mutual agreement, or, in the case of nonagreement, by the Director of the Bureau of the Budget. 6. (a) There also are transferred to the Atomic Energy Commission, all civilian officers and employees of the Manhattan Engineer District, War Department, except that the Commission and the Secretary of Wary may by mutual agreement exclude any of such personnel from transfer to the Commission. (b) The military and naval personnel heretofore assigned or detailed to the Manhattan Engineer District, War Department, shall continue to be made available to the Commission, for military and naval duty, in similar manner, without prejudice to the military or naval status of such personnel, for such periods of time as may be agreed mutually by the Commission and the Secretary of War or the Secretary of the Navy. 7. The assistance and the services, personal or other, including the use of property, heretofore made available by any Government agency to the Manhattan Engineer District, War Department, shall be made available to the Atomic Energy Commission for the same purposes as heretofore and under the arrangements now existing until terminated after 30 days notice given by the Commission or by the Government agency concerned in each case. 8. The Commission is authorized to exercise all the powers and functions vested in the Secretary of War by Executive Order 9001, of December 27, 1941, as amended, in so far as they relate to contracts heretofore made by or hereby transferred to the Commission. 9. Such further measures and dispositions as may be determined by the Atomic Energy Commission and any Government agency concerned to be necessary to effectuate the transfers authorized or directed by this order shall be carried out in such manner as the Director of the Bureau of the Budget may direct and by such agencies as he may designate. 10. This order shall be effective as of midnight, December 31, 1946. HARRY S. TRUMAN THE WHITE HOUSE, December 31, 1946