A jumble of questions of law, politics, public opinion, economics, and ideology make the subject of public power a rich and confused field of debate. This paper is not concerned with the merits of that debate; it is concerned rather with a lawyer's appraisal of the Atomic Energy Act of I954 as that law relates to public-power issues. In making such an analysis, it is first necessary to describe the position which public and private power now occupy in the economic system, entirely apart from atomic energy. Next, it is important to know the part which federal law and policy have played in producing these conditions. The relation between federal power policy of the past several decades and atomic energy can then be discussed. And finally, it will be possible to analyze the Atomic Energy Act of I954 as an expression of federal power policy in its bearing on public and private power.