NRC Chairman Ho K. Nieh and Governor Michael Braun signed an agreement on 24 September 2026 under Section 274b of the Atomic Energy Act, under which the Commission discontinues its regulatory authority and Indiana assumes it over byproduct material, source material, and special nuclear material in quantities not sufficient to form a critical mass. The agreement took effect 30 September 2026.

An Agreement State regulates most radioactive material within its borders in place of the NRC. Indiana becomes one, which changes the counterparty without changing the underlying standards.

All three categories transfer, and the third is the one most often missed: special nuclear material in quantities too small to form a critical mass moves to the state along with byproduct and source material. A licensee holding sealed sources that reads this as byproduct-only will apply to the wrong regulator.

Power reactors stay with the NRC. The transfer covers materials, which is gauges, sources, industrial radiography and medical isotopes, and not a reactor license.