Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
1/9/2015
Stephen Burns took over last week as the new Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Burns replaces Allison Macfarlane, who left the NRC to take a position at George Washington University. Burns was confirmed by the Senate this fall to serve as an NRC Commissioner, and among his previous positions, he had a 33-year history with the agency, culminating as NRC General Counsel under former-Chair Gregory Jaczko. “I am pleased to have been selected to serve as the NRC’s next Chairman,” Burns said in a statement. “It is a great honor to lead the agency to which I dedicated most of my professional career. I extend my thanks to Dr. Macfarlane for her service and wish her success in her new position. I look forward to working with my fellow Commissioners, the NRC staff and our stakeholders in carrying out the NRC’s important mission.”
The Nuclear Energy Institute endorsed the selection of Burns for Chairman. “The nuclear energy industry congratulates Stephen Burns on his selection by the president to serve as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s chairman upon the departure of Allison Macfarlane,” NEI President and CEO Marvin Fertel said in a statement. “We look forward to working with him as he guides the agency in the years ahead, and we urge him to continue to pursue the prioritization of regulatory activities among the agency’s 3,800 employees to ensure that NRC and industry resources are properly focused on those issues and programs of the greatest safety significance. We also look forward to working with him and the rest of the commission to complete and close out the Fukushima lessons-learned safety enhancements.”
Burns Expectations: “Truly Objective”
Some industry officials have predicted a professional and objective NRC under Burns’ leadership. There had been some worry, especially during his Senate confirmation hearing, over Burns’ role in stopping the NRC’s review of the Department of Energy’s license application for the now-shuttered Yucca Mountain repository. A federal appeals court eventually ruled the NRC had mis-stepped when it did not use all available funds to complete the review, and it ruled the NRC must re-start the review until all available funds were expended. One industry official said Burns’ part in Yucca Mountain is not indicative of how he will handle the Commission. “Most people believe his time with Jaczko was an anomaly, because he was responding to the NRC Chairman’s instructions,” the industry official said. “The Burns we will see as Chairman will be more of a reflection of the traditional professionalism and integrity that the NRC has primarily exhibited over the course of its history.”
When it does come to NRC’s involvement in Yucca Mountain, the expectation, according to another industry official, is that Burns will not affect the review one way or the other. “On Yucca, I don’t think he is going to do anything one way or the other,” the industry official said. “I think they will finish what they started with the SERs, and I think they will be just as happy to turn the ball over to Congress.” The NRC has maintained that it has enough funding to complete the Yucca Mountain Safety Evaluation Report, but not enough to start the adjudication process. Three of the five volumes have already been released, with the remaining two expected this month.
