On September 16, 2014, Stephen Burns and Jeff Baran were confirmed as Commissioners at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by the Senate. Thirty days later, on October 14, 2014, Jeff Baran was sworn in and began serving out the remainder of the term of William Magwood, who left the commission to take over as Director-General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA). That term expires on June 30, 2015.
Several Atomic Insights readers have noticed that the The Commission page on the NRC’s web site lists four members, and does not include Stephen Burns. They asked if I knew why. There is a note on the NEI web site indicating that Burns would be seated in early November. My guess was that it was taking Burns longer to join the commission because he was still working in Paris at the NEA at the time that his nomination was confirmed.
I contacted the NRC public affairs office to confirm my guess. Here is the response I received.
Yes. He needed to unwind his NEA job and work on a move back here. No intrigue about the timing.
Guessing that Burns will also be designated as Chairman when Macfarlane leaves in January.
Rod – You have it right. I needed to wrap up my service at OECD NEA and had a couple issues I wanted to get resolved related to the Paris liability convention, which is under OECD/NEA auspices, before I left. I return to the U.S. early next week to be sworn in Wednesday.
Steve Burns