§2164 — Title 42 The Public Health and Welfare | U.S. Code

Summary

The President can allow U.S. agencies to share Restricted Data — secret information about nuclear materials, reactors, or weapons — with other countries. For peaceful uses, the President may let the nuclear agency share six types of information, such as work on reactors, making special nuclear material, safety, and related research. For defense, the President may let the Department of Defense, with help from the nuclear agency, share Restricted Data (including design details) for four things: making defense plans, training, checking enemy nuclear capabilities, and making compatible delivery systems. The President can also approve trading weapons-related Restricted Data to help a country improve its weapons or to share military-reactor research if that country has made substantial progress. The President may permit sharing of Restricted Data or data removed from that category to support accounting for fissile material and weapons, verify treaties, and set international classification standards. Before doing this, the President must decide the sharing will help U.S. and partner security and will not create an unreasonable risk, and the exchange must follow an official cooperation agreement. Any U.S. agency can be authorized to share data under those agreements.

Title 42, §2164

The Public Health and Welfare — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The President may authorize the Commission to cooperate with another nation and to communicate to that nation Restricted Data on—

(1)refining, purification, and subsequent treatment of source material;

(2)civilian reactor development;

(3)production of special nuclear material;

(4)health and safety;

(5)industrial and other applications of atomic energy for peaceful purposes; and

(6)research and development relating to the foregoing:

(b)The President may authorize the Department of Defense, with the assistance of the Commission, to cooperate with another nation or with a regional defense organization to which the United States is a party, and to communicate to that nation or organization such Restricted Data (including design information) as is necessary to—

(1)the development of defense plans;

(2)the training of personnel in the employment of and defense against atomic weapons and other military applications of atomic energy;

(3)the evaluation of the capabilities of potential enemies in the employment of atomic weapons and other military applications of atomic energy; and

(4)the development of compatible delivery systems for atomic weapons;

(c)In addition to the cooperation authorized in subsections (a) and (b), the President may authorize the Commission, with the assistance of the Department of Defense, to cooperate with another nation and—

(1)to exchange with that nation Restricted Data concerning atomic weapons: Provided, That communication of such Restricted Data to that nation is necessary to improve its atomic weapon design, development, or fabrication capability and provided that nation has made substantial progress in the development of atomic weapons; and

(2)to communicate or exchange with that nation Restricted Data concerning research, development, or design, of military reactors,

(d)(1)In addition to the cooperation authorized in subsections (a), (b), and (c), the President may, upon making a determination described in paragraph (2), authorize the Department of Energy, with the assistance of the Department of Defense, to cooperate with another nation to communicate to that nation such Restricted Data, and the President may, upon making such determination, authorize the Department of Defense, with the assistance of the Department of Energy, to cooperate with another nation to communicate to that nation such data removed from the Restricted Data category under section 2162 of this title, as is necessary for—

(A)the support of a program for the control of and accounting for fissile material and other weapons material;

(B)the support of the control of and accounting for atomic weapons;

(C)the verification of a treaty; and

(D)the establishment of international standards for the classification of data on atomic weapons, data on fissile material, and related data.

(2)A determination referred to in paragraph (1) is a determination that the proposed cooperation and proposed communication referred to in that paragraph—

(A)will promote the common defense and security interests of the United States and the nation concerned; and

(B)will not constitute an unreasonable risk to such common defense and security interests.

(3)Cooperation under this subsection shall be undertaken pursuant to an agreement for cooperation entered into in accordance with section 2153 of this title.

(e)The President may authorize any agency of the United States to communicate in accordance with the terms and conditions of an agreement for cooperation arranged pursuant to subsection (a), (b), (c), or (d), such Restricted Data as is determined to be transmissible under the agreement for cooperation involved.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1994—Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 103–337, § 3155(a)(2), added subsec. (d). Former subsec. (d) redesignated (e). Subsec. (e). Pub. L. 103–337, § 3155(c)(4), substituted “(c), or (d)” for “or (c)”. Pub. L. 103–337, § 3155(a)(1), redesignated subsec. (d) as (e). 1958—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 85–479, § 5, substituted “civilian reactor development” for “reactor development” in cl. (2). Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 85–479, § 6, authorized communication of design information, of data concerning other military applications of atomic energy necessary for the training of personnel or for the evaluation of the capabilities of potential enemies, and of data necessary to the development of compatible delivery systems for atomic weapons, and struck out provisions which prohibited communication of data which would reveal important information concerning the design or fabrication of the nuclear components of atomic weapons. Subsecs. (c), (d). Pub. L. 85–479, § 7, added subsecs. (c) and (d).

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Prohibition on Inspections Pub. L. 104–106, div. C, title XXXI, § 3154(a), Feb. 10, 1996, 110 Stat. 624, which was formerly set out as a note under this section, was renumbered section 4501(a) of Pub. L. 107–314 by Pub. L. 108–136, div. C, title XXXI, § 3141(h)(2)(A)–(C), Nov. 24, 2003, 117 Stat. 1771, and classified to section 2651(a) of Title 50, War and National Defense, and was repealed and restated as section 6221 of Title 10, Armed Forces, by Pub. L. 119–60, div. C, title XXXI, § 3111(a), (b)(1), Dec. 18, 2025, 139 Stat. 1401, 1458.

Executive Documents

Delegation of Functions Authority vested in President by subsecs. (b) and (c) of this section delegated to Secretary of Defense and Secretary of Energy, see section 2(a)(2) and (3) of Ex. Ord. No. 10841, as amended, set out as a note under section 2153 of this title.

§2164 International cooperation