Stephen G. Burns

Stephen G. Burns is an American lawyer and former chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Mr. Burns received a bachelor's degree, magna cum laude, in 1975 from Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. He received his law degree with honors in 1978 from the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where he was an editor on the George Washington Law Review.

Mr. Burns joined the NRC as an attorney in 1978. He served as Deputy General Counsel starting in 1998 then served as General Counsel from May 2009 until April 2012. He left the NRC to serve as Head of Legal Affairs of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris from April 2012, until he rejoined the NRC.