---
kind: "section"
citation: "42 U.S.C. § 2140"
title: "42"
title_heading: "The Public Health and Welfare"
number: "2140"
heading: "Exclusions from license requirement"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/42/2140"
units:
  - "Chapter 23 — Development and Control of Atomic Energy"
  - "Division A — Atomic Energy"
  - "Subchapter IX — Atomic Energy Licenses"
---

# §2140. Exclusions from license requirement


Nothing in this subchapter shall be deemed—

- (a) to require a license for (1) the processing, fabricating, or refining of [special nuclear material](/usc/42/2014.md?p=aa), or the separation of [special nuclear material](/usc/42/2014.md?p=aa), or the separation of [special nuclear material](/usc/42/2014.md?p=aa) from other substances, under contract with and for the account of the [Commission](/usc/42/2014.md?p=f); or (2) the [construction](/usc/42/300s–3.md?p=7) or operation of facilities under contract with and for the account of the [Commission](/usc/42/2014.md?p=f); or
- (b) to require a license for the manufacture, production, or acquisition by the Department of Defense of any [utilization facility](/usc/42/2014.md?p=cc) authorized pursuant to [section 2121 of this title](/usc/42/2121.md), or for the use of such facility by the Department of Defense or a contractor thereof.

## Source credit

(Aug. 1, 1946, ch. 724, title I, § 110, as added Aug. 30, 1954, ch. 1073, § 1, 68 Stat. 939; renumbered title I, Pub. L. 102–486, title IX, § 902(a)(8), Oct. 24, 1992, 106 Stat. 2944.)