The Department of Energy has one of the richest and most diverse histories in the Federal Government. Although only in existence since 1977, the Department traces its lineage to the Manhattan Project effort to develop the atomic bomb during World War II and to the various energy-related programs that previously had been dispersed throughout various Federal agencies.
The Department of Energy Organization Act of 1977 created one the most interesting and diverse agencies in the Federal government. Activated on October 1, 1977, the twelfth cabinet-level department brought together for the first time within one agency two programmatic traditions that had long coexisted within the Federal establishment: 1) defense responsibilities that included the design, construction, and testing of nuclear weapons dating from the Manhattan Project effort to build the atomic bomb, and 2) a loosely knit amalgamation of energy-related programs scattered throughout the Federal government.
DOE’s Two Programmatic Traditions
In August 1939, on the eve of World War II, Albert Einstein wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, informing him that recent research showed that a nuclear chain reaction might make possible the construction of “extremely powerful bombs.” In response, Roosevelt initiated a Federal research program, and, in 1942, the Army Corps of Engineers established the Manhattan Engineer District to design and produce the first atomic bomb. Following the war, Congress engaged in a contentious debate over civilian versus military control of the atom. The Atomic Energy Act of 1946 settled the debate by creating the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), which took over the Manhattan Project’s sprawling scientific and industrial complex.
During the early Cold War years, the AEC focused on designing and producing nuclear weapons and developing nuclear reactors for naval propulsion. The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 ended exclusive government use of the atom and began the growth of the commercial nuclear power industry, giving the AEC authority to regulate the new industry.
Until the 1970s, the Federal government played a limited role in formulating national energy policy in an era of relatively cheap and abundant energy. The nation relied on the private sector to fulfill most of its energy needs. Historically, Americans expected private industry to establish production, distribution, marketing, and pricing policies. When free market conditions were absent, Federal regulations were established to control energy pricing.
No overall energy policy existed. Government officials generally thought in terms of particular fuels, technologies, and resources rather than “energy.”
The Energy Crisis and the Department of Energy
What brought these two traditions together in the Department of Energy were two factors. First, the AEC’s activities in developing and commercializing nuclear energy represented the Federal government’s largest and most significant energy project into the early 1970s. Second, the energy crisis of the mid-1970s hastened a series of government reorganizations as both the executive and legislative branches sought to better coordinate Federal energy policy and programs.
The establishment of the Department of Energy brought most Federal energy activities under one umbrella and provided the framework for a comprehensive and balanced national energy plan. The Department undertook responsibility for long-term, high-risk research and development of energy technology, Federal power marketing, energy conservation, the nuclear weapons program, energy regulatory programs, and a central energy data collection and analysis program.
Security and Prosperity through World-Class Science
Over its thirty-five year history, the Department of Energy has shifted its emphasis and focus as the needs of the nation have changed. During the late 1970s, the Department emphasized energy development and regulation. In the 1980s, nuclear weapons research, development, and production took a priority. With the end of the Cold war, the Department focused on environmental cleanup of the nuclear weapons complex and nonproliferation and stewardship of the nuclear stockpile.
In the 2000s, the Department’s priority has been ensuring the nation’s security and prosperity by addressing its energy, environmental and nuclear challenges through science and technology solutions. The Department has sought to transform the nation’s energy system and secure leadership in clean energy technologies, .pursue world-class science and engineering as a cornerstone of economic prosperity, and enhance nuclear security through defense, nonproliferation, and environmental efforts.
Current Program Offices:
Current Labs & Technology Centers:
Current Field Sites:
The Department has made available to researchers and the general public a rich variety of materials and information:
Early Historical Timeline
August 2, 1939
Albert Einstein writes President Franklin D. Roosevelt, alerting the President to the importance of research on nuclear chain reactions and the possibility that research might lead to developing powerful bombs. Einstein notes that Germany has stopped the sale of uranium and German physicists are engaged in uranium research.
February 24, 1941
Glenn T. Seaborg’s research group at the University of California in Berkeley discovers plutonium.
January 19, 1942
President Roosevelt approves production of the atomic bomb following receipt of a National Academy of Sciences report determining that a bomb is feasible.
June 17, 1942
President Roosevelt instructs the Army to take responsibility for construction of atomic weapons complex. The Army delegates the task to the Corps of Engineers.
August 13, 1942
The Army Corps of Engineers establishes the Manhattan Engineer District to develop and build the atomic bomb. Uranium isotope separation facilities are built at Oak Ridge, Tennessee; plutonium production reactors are built at Hanford, Washington; and a weapons laboratory is set up at Los Alamos, New Mexico.
September 19, 1942
Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves, head of the Manhattan Engineer District, selects Oak Ridge, Tennessee, site for facilities to produce nuclear materials. Isotope separation of uranium235 takes place in the gaseous diffusion plant built in the K-25 area of the site, in the electromagnetic plant in the Y-12 area, and in the liquid thermal diffusion plant. A pilot pile (reactor) and plutonium separation facility are built and operated at the X-10 area.
November 25, 1942
Groves selects Los Alamos, New Mexico, as site for separate scientific laboratory to design an atomic bomb.
December 2, 1942
Metallurgical Laboratory scientists led by Enrico Fermi achieve the first self-sustained nuclear chain reaction in pile constructed under the west grandstand at Stagg field in Chicago.
January 16, 1943
Groves selects Hanford, Washington, as site for full-scale plutonium production and separation facilities. Three reactors--B, D, and F--are built.
April 5, 1944
Congress passes the Synthetic Liquid Fuels Act authorizing the Bureau of Mines to build energy research laboratories.
July 16, 1945
Los Alamos scientists successfully test a plutonium implosion bomb in the Trinity shot at Alamogordo, New Mexico.
August 6, 1945
The gun model uranium bomb, called Little Boy, is dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.
August 9, 1945
The implosion model plutonium bomb, called Fat Man, is dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. Five days later, Japan surrenders.
June 14, 1946
Bernard Baruch presents the American plan for international control of atomic research to the United Nations. The Soviet Union opposes the plan, rendering it useless.
August 1, 1946
President Truman signs the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 transferring Manhattan Project assets and responsibilities to the civilian Atomic Energy Commission.
January 1, 1947
In accordance with the Atomic Energy Act of 1946, all atomic energy activities are transferred to the newly created Atomic Energy Commission.
August 14, 1947
Ground is broken at the Brookhaven National Laboratory for the Graphite Research Reactor, the first reactor constructed for the sole purpose of exploring peaceful uses of the atom.
November 1947
Two new production reactors are authorized for the Hanford site. As the Cold War intensifies, the Atomic Energy Commission over the next five years greatly expands the weapons complex. New facilities include three additions to the Oak Ridge gaseous diffusion complex; new gaseous diffusion plants at Paducah, Kentucky, and Portsmouth, Ohio; three additional plutonium production reactors at Hanford; five heavy-water reactors for producing tritium and plutonium at a site on the Savannah River in South Carolina; a reactor testing station near Idaho Falls, Idaho; a feed materials production center at Fernald, Ohio; component and assembly plants at Rocky Flats, Colorado, and Amarillo, Texas; a second weapons laboratory at Livermore, California; and a continental testing site near Las Vegas, Nevada.
August 29, 1949
Soviet Union detonates first atomic device.
January 31, 1950
President Truman instructs the Atomic Energy Commission to expedite development of a thermonuclear weapon.
October 9, 1950
President Truman approves a $1.4 billion expansion of Atomic Energy Commission facilities to produce uranium and plutonium for nuclear weapons.
December 20, 1951
The Experimental Breeder Reactor No. 1 located at the National Reactor Testing Station near Arco, Idaho, produces the first electric power from a nuclear reactor.
October 31, 1952
The Atomic Energy Commission detonates the first thermonuclear device, code-named "Mike," at Enewetak Atoll in the Pacific. The device explodes with a yield of 10.4 megatons.
January 24, 1954
The Navy launches the first nuclear-powered submarine, U.S.S. Nautilus.
February 14, 1954
The Bevatron particle accelerator begins operation at the Radiation Laboratory at Berkeley, California.
August 30, 1954
President Eisenhower signs the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, opening the way for development of a civilian nuclear power program.
October 4, 1957
The Soviet Union successfully launches Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite. Marking the dawn of the Space Age, the event pushes the US government into action and leads to the formation of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
June 29, 1961
The first radioisotope thermoelectric generator for space applications, providing electrical power for spacecraft by direct conversion of the heat generated by the decay of plutonium-238 oxide to electrical energy, is launched on the Navy Transit 4A spacecraft.
September 1, 1961
The Soviet Union breaks the three-year moratorium on nuclear weapons testing. In a period of 60 days, the Soviets conduct 50 atmospheric tests, with a total yield exceeding that of all previous test series, by all nations, combined.
September 15, 1961
The U.S. resumes nuclear weapons testing, with an underground test at the Nevada Test Site.
April 30, 1962
The Atomic Energy Commission awards a contract to Stanford University for construction of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.
August 5, 1963
The United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union sign the Limited Test Ban Treaty prohibiting underwater, atmospheric, and outer space nuclear tests. Nuclear testing continues underground.
December 12, 1963
The Jersey Central Power and Light Company announces the purchase of a 515-megawatt plant from General Electric to be built at Oyster Creek, New Jersey. It is the first nuclear power plant selected on purely economic grounds without government aid and in direct competition with a conventional facility.
April 3, 1965
The U.S. launches the first nuclear reactor in space (SNAP-10A). SNAP stands for Systems for Nuclear Auxiliary Power.
November 21, 1967
President Lyndon Johnson signs a bill authorizing the National Accelerator Laboratory, later renamed the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, for a site at Weston, Illinois, thirty miles west of Chicago.
July 1, 1968
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty prohibiting non-nuclear weapon states from possessing, manufacturing, or acquiring nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices is opened for signature.
August 7, 1972
The Atomic Energy Commission announces a cooperative agreement with industry to build a Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor on the Clinch River in Tennessee.
December 4, 1973
The Federal Energy Office replaces the Energy Policy Office. The new office is assigned the task of allocating reduced petroleum supplies to refiners and consumers and of controlling the price of oil and gasoline. William Simon is named Administrator.
May 7, 1974
President Nixon signs the Federal Administration Act of 1974. The Federal Energy Administration replaces the Federal Energy Office.
October 11, 1974
President Ford signs the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, abolishing the Atomic Energy Commission and establishing the Energy Research and Development Administration and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
January 19, 1975
The Energy Research and Development Administration is activated. The new agency is given responsibility for the Atomic Energy Commission's nuclear weapons program. President Ford appoints Robert C. Seamans, Jr., as Administrator.
March 24, 1977
The Energy Research and Development Administration announces the establishment of the Solar Energy Research Institute, a Federal facility dedicated to finding and improving ways to harness and use energy from the sun, at Golden, Colorado.
August 4, 1977
President Carter signs the Department of Energy Organization Act. The Federal Energy Administration and Energy Research and Development Administration are abolished.
October 1, 1977
The Department of Energy (DOE) is activated. Bringing together a score of organizational entities from a dozen departments and agencies, the new department is also given responsibility for the nuclear weapons program.
October 5-6, 1977
Secretary Schlesinger signs nine international energy agreements at a meeting of the International Energy Agency in Paris
November 9, 1978
President Carter signs the National Energy Act, which includes the National Energy Conservation Policy Act, the Power Plant and Industrial Fuel Use Act, the Public Utilities Regulatory Policy Act, the Energy Tax Act, and the Natural Gas Policy Act.
March 28, 1979
A partial meltdown of the core occurs at one of the two reactors at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
July 10, 1979
President Carter proclaims a national energy supply shortage and establishes temperature restrictions in nonresidential buildings.
June 30, 1980
President Carter signs the Energy Security Act, consisting of six major acts: U.S. Synthetic Fuels Corporation Act, Biomass Energy and Alcohol Fuels Act, Renewable Energy Resources Act, Solar Energy and Energy Conservation Act and Solar Energy and Energy Conservation Bank Act, Geothermal Energy Act, and Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Act.
May 24, 1982
President Reagan proposes legislation transferring most responsibilities of DOE to the Department of Commerce. Congress fails to act on the proposal.
January 7, 1983
President Reagan signs the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, the Nation's first comprehensive nuclear waste legislation.
March 23, 1983
President Reagan addresses the nation on national security and announces the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a satellite-based defense system that would destroy incoming missiles and warheads in space.
October 7, 1983
DOE establishes the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Office.
April 26, 1986
A major nuclear accident occurs at Chernobyl Reactor #4 near Pripyat, Ukraine in the Soviet Union, spreading radioactive contamination over a large area.
January 30, 1987
Secretary Herrington announces President Reagan's approval of construction of the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC), the world's largest and most advanced particle accelerator.
December 22, 1987
Congress approves amendment designating Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as the only site to be considered for high-level nuclear waste repository.
June 27, 1989
Watkins announces the Ten-Point Plan to strengthen environmental protection and waste management activities at the Department's production, research, and testing facilities in response to mounting environmental and safety concerns within the weapons production complex.
November 9, 1989
DOE establishes the Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management within the Department. The office consolidates activities that had been spread throughout DOE.
September 23, 1992
The United States conducts its last underground nuclear weapons test. Congress imposes a temporary moratorium on nuclear weapons testing.
October 1993
Congress votes to terminate the Superconducting Super Collider.
November 23, 1994
The Department announces the completion of a highly classified interagency operation to transfer weapons grade highly enriched uranium out of Kazakhstan to DOE's Y-12 Plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
March 25, 1995
Physicists at DOE's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory announce the discovery of the subatomic particle called the top quark, the last undiscovered quark of the six predicted to exist by current scientific theory.
Workers complete drilling of the five-mile long, horseshoe-shaped exploratory tunnel through Yucca Mountain at the proposed high-level nuclear waste repository in Nevada.
June 20, 1997
The Plutonium Uranium Extraction Facility (PUREX), the largest of the Nation's Cold War plutonium processing plants, is deactivated a year ahead of schedule.
July 2, 1997
The first "subcritical" physics experiment at the Nevada Test Site, code-name "Rebound," provides scientific data on the behavior of plutonium without underground nuclear-weapons testing.
January 22, 1998
The Department of Energy announces that it will dispose of defense-generated transuranic waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in southeastern New Mexico.
May 11-13, 1998
India explodes several nuclear devices
May 28-30, 1998
Pakistan explodes several nuclear devices.
October 28, 1998
The Clinton administration unveils IBM's Pacific Blue computer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Pacific Blue is a key component of the Department's Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative, which simulates nuclear weapons behavior without testing.
November 20, 1998
As part of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program, DOE opens a long-term climate research station on Nauru in the central Pacific on the eastern edge of the ocean's "warm pool," an area that consistently produces the warmest sea surface temperatures in the world.
December 18, 1998
The Department submits the viability assessment of the Yucca Mountain site to President Clinton and Congress. The Department reports that 15 years of research reveals no "show stoppers" to disqualify the site but notes that certain critical issues should continue to be studied.
December 22, 1998
The Department announces that Savannah River will be the site of a plant that will disassemble pits from nuclear weapons and convert the recovered metal to an oxide, beginning a process of destroying rather than creating weapons-grade plutonium.
March 26, 1999
After more than two decades of political, legal, and bureaucratic delays, the first truckload of radioactive waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory arrives at the DOE Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in southeastern New Mexico, 26 miles east of Carlsbad.
April 27, 1999
The Department of Energy and the Department of Interior launch the Green Energy Parks Program, designed to increase the use of sustainable energy technology in the nation's parks.
June 3, 1999
President Clinton issues Executive Order 13123 setting new goals for federal energy management, with DOE's Federal Energy Management Program designated as the federal government's program coordinator.
June 21, 1999
The Department announces the Wind Powering America initiative, designed to significantly increase the use of wind power in the United States over the next ten years.
June 30, 1999
Save America's Treasures, a national public-private effort between the White House Millennium Council and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, awards DOE $1.02 million to help preserve historically significant structures at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory.
September 10, 1999
Secretary Richardson signs agreements with the governors of Tennessee, Colorado, South Carolina, and Washington to improve intergovernmental cooperation and to recommit DOE to seeking "predictable and adequate" funding to meet its cleanup responsibilities.
September 18, 1999
The world's largest wind power facility, utilizing turbines developed and tested jointly by DOE and Enron Wind Corporation, is dedicated in Storm Lake, Iowa, as part of the Department's Wind Powering America Initiative.
December 10, 1999
The Department designates the Federal Energy Technology Center as DOE's newest national laboratory, to be known as the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). Located 65 miles apart but commonly managed in Morgantown, West Virginia, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the laboratory is the nation's largest fossil energy research organization.
December 15, 1999
The ground breaking ceremony is held at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the $1.36 billion Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) project for neutron scattering and related research in the physical, chemical, materials, biological, and medical sciences. The SNS is a partnership of five DOE laboratories--Oak Ridge, Argonne, Brookhaven, Lawrence Berkeley, and Los Alamos.
February 28, 2000
The Department of Energy and the American Institute of Architects announce a national design competition for the largest solar energy system on a U. S. federal government building and one of the largest such systems in the world. The "Sun Wall" at the Department's Forrestal building spans nearly two-thirds of an acre and is currently blank.
April 22, 2000
The Department participates in Earth Day 2000, the 30th anniversary of Earth Day. The global theme is Clean Energy Now. Power for the event, which draws 300,000 to the mall, is provided entirely by renewable energy sources. The Department issues a statement in conjunction with Earth Day reporting that energy use in federal buildings has decreased 20% since 1985.
May 4, 2000
A prescribed burn to clear brush at Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico quickly burns out of control and becomes the largest-ever fire in the state. The fire enters Los Alamos Canyon on May 10, leading to evacuations and the closing of Los Alamos National Laboratory. Air monitoring by LANL indicates no releases of radiation as the fire sweeps through 9,000 acres of LANL property.
August 28, 2000
The Department announces that Compaq Computer will build the world's fastest supercomputer at Los Alamos National Laboratory by 2002. The computer, ASCI Q (Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative) will be part of the Department's Stockpile Stewardship Program and will be used to help verify that warheads in the stockpile are reliable without physical testing. The $200 million computer will operate faster than the combined speeds of the next 21 fastest machines currently in operation and process as much information daily as 20,000 personal computers.
January 17, 2001
The Department announces plans to build the second largest wind power facility in the United States on part of DOE's Nevada Test Site. The MNS Wind Company will build and operate the wind farm on 664 acres of the test site.
August 13, 2001
The National Research Council recommends that the goals of the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) program be reevaluated and updated. PNGV is a partnership between the Federal government and the U.S. automotive industry - DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor Co., and General Motors Corp. under the umbrella organization, the United States Council for Automotive Research. The program was designed to develop a new generation of vehicles with up to three times the fuel efficiency of conventional cars without compromising performance, affordability, safety, utility, or emissions. "The current goals of the PNGV program include production prototypes for an 80 mile-per-gallon sedan by 2004," Secretary Abraham notes. "Since roughly half of the light-duty vehicle sales in the U.S. are sport utility vehicles, vans and pickup trucks, the PNGV program is out of step with markets and consumer demand."
August 15, 2001