---
kind: "section"
citation: "42 U.S.C. § 2278"
title: "42"
title_heading: "The Public Health and Welfare"
number: "2278"
heading: "Statute of limitations"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/42/2278"
units:
  - "Chapter 23 — Development and Control of Atomic Energy"
  - "Division A — Atomic Energy"
  - "Subchapter XVII — Enforcement of Chapter"
---

# §2278. Statute of limitations


Except for a capital offense, no individual or [person](/usc/42/2014.md?p=s) shall be prosecuted, tried, or punished for any offense prescribed or defined in sections [2274](/usc/42/2274.md) to [2276](/usc/42/2276.md) of this title unless the indictment is found or the information is instituted within ten years next after such offense shall have been committed.


## Source credit

(Aug. 1, 1946, ch. 724, title I, § 228, as added Aug. 30, 1954, ch. 1073, § 1, 68 Stat. 959; renumbered title I, Pub. L. 102–486, title IX, § 902(a)(8), Oct. 24, 1992, 106 Stat. 2944.)