---
kind: "section"
citation: "42 U.S.C. § 2238"
title: "42"
title_heading: "The Public Health and Welfare"
number: "2238"
heading: "Continued operation of facilities"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/42/2238"
units:
  - "Chapter 23 — Development and Control of Atomic Energy"
  - "Division A — Atomic Energy"
  - "Subchapter XV — Judicial Review and Administrative Procedure"
---

# §2238. Continued operation of facilities


Whenever the [Commission](/usc/42/2014.md?p=f) finds that the public convenience and necessity or the production program of the [Commission](/usc/42/2014.md?p=f) requires continued operation of a [production facility](/usc/42/2014.md?p=v) or [utilization facility](/usc/42/2014.md?p=cc) the license for which has been revoked pursuant to [section 2236 of this title](/usc/42/2236.md), the [Commission](/usc/42/2014.md?p=f) may, after consultation with the appropriate regulatory [agency](/usc/42/2231.md?p=a), [State](/usc/42/2021b.md?p=14) or Federal, having jurisdiction, order that possession be taken of and such facility be operated for such period of time as the public convenience and necessity or the production program of the [Commission](/usc/42/2014.md?p=f) may, in the judgment of the [Commission](/usc/42/2014.md?p=f), require, or until a license for the operation of the facility shall become effective. Just compensation shall be paid for the use of the facility.


## Source credit

(Aug. 1, 1946, ch. 724, title I, § 188, as added Aug. 30, 1954, ch. 1073, § 1, 68 Stat. 955; renumbered title I, Pub. L. 102–486, title IX, § 902(a)(8), Oct. 24, 1992, 106 Stat. 2944.)