High Court Ruling on Nuclear Waste Storage Site Hard to Predict

March 7, 2025, 6:40 PM UTC

A fight over plans for a privately owned nuclear waste storage facility in Texas seemed to divide the US Supreme Court as the justices wrestled with a federal agency’s regulatory authority and who can challenge it.

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“Cases and Controversies” hosts Greg Stohr and Lydia Wheeler unpack Wednesday’s arguments in the dispute over a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license that would have moved as much as 40,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel to a privately owned facility.

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled the agency didn’t have the authority to grant the license after Texas and neighboring landowners challenged it in court. It’s unclear if the court will affirm that ruling. A decision is due by the end of June or early July.

The hosts also chat about the most significant ruling to come from the Supreme Court so far in litigation against actions President Donald Trump has taken since returning to office. A divided court rejected his request to toss out a district court order that forced him to pay $2 billion in federal foreign aid.

Hosts: Greg Stohr and Lydia Wheeler

Producer: Mo Barrow

Do you have feedback on this episode of Cases & Controversies? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.


To contact the reporter on this story: Lydia Wheeler in Washington at lwheeler@bloomberglaw.com

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Seth Stern at sstern@bloomberglaw.com; John Crawley at jcrawley@bloomberglaw.com

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