I fail to see why this is too wild to believe. The 5th Circuit’s decision isn’t crazy. It’s a statutory interpretation question of whether the NRC has the authority to license spent nuclear fuel facilities that aren’t associated with nuclear power plants. If you read the statutes at issue, it isn’t clear that NRC actually has that power. And the government implicitly admits that in their brief arguing that the NRC has always done this so, they should be able to continue.

While I think Texas has the better legal argument, I’m skeptical the Supreme Court will side with them because the outcome might be too disruptive. Plus, Texas didn’t necessarily engage enough with the NRC during licensing. And it seems to me that the Supreme Court will likely avoid the question of whether the NRC actually has this power and will instead say that Texas doesn’t have standing to sue because they didn’t engage enough during licensing.

Anyone have a link to less editorialized coverage of this issue?

Why not seat the waste in casks, drop them into subduction zones, and let the Earth's recycling of its crust do the rest?