Valar's suit against the NRC: joined April 2025 to exempt small reactors from NRC licensing; paused for settlement talks

Valar's post of 7 April 2025 announces that it joined Texas, Utah, Louisiana, Florida and Arizona (the court filing names the Arizona Legislature), with Last Energy and Deep Fission, in a lawsuit against the NRC. As Valar describes it, the suit argues that the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 limits NRC licensing to reactors significant to defense or public health and safety, and that the 1956 'Utilization Facility Rule', issued by the NRC's predecessor, the Atomic Energy Commission, which requires a license for any reactor, exceeds that authority; Valar says its planned 'Ward One' reactor is named in the suit and that states have begun creating regulatory bodies to host such tests. The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality's release of 8 April 2025 says the case was filed by Texas, Utah and Last Energy (on 30 December 2024, per the NRC's litigation status report) and positions Louisiana to benefit from a favorable ruling or settlement. E&E News (23 July 2025) reports the case is in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, that the NRC first moved to dismiss it, and that in June 2025 the NRC joined the plaintiffs in asking the court to extend a stay to 29 September 2025 to seek 'a mutually agreeable resolution'; the court granted it on 30 June. E&E also reports Valar had not contacted or met with the NRC, with Taylor asking why a company that believes the jurisdiction is wrong would engage. The NRC's litigation status report, current to 27 January 2026, says the case had been placed in abeyance at the parties' request; on 26 January 2026 the parties asked for 45 more days, and the court had not yet acted. A commercial copy of the court docket lists a joint status report filed on 2 September 2026 as its latest entry, with no dismissal or settlement shown; that report's text was not found in the records we checked as of 2 October 2026. Ward 250 itself went forward under DOE authorization, not under the state-regulation model the suit argued for.

• Valar Atomics is Suing the NRC (The Nuclear Necessity and our decision to sue the NRC) (Valar Atomics (Isaiah Taylor), 2025-04-07) primary company “Valar Atomics' own Ward One is a reactor named in the suit.”
• Louisiana Joins Legal Challenge to Unleash Nuclear Energy Innovation (press release) (Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, 2025-04-08) primary government “positions Louisiana to benefit from any favorable ruling or settlement”
• NRC lawsuit could hand states power over advanced reactors (E&E News by POLITICO, 2025-07-23) news “a mutually agreeable resolution that could avoid or limit further litigation”
• Litigation Status Report (as of January 27, 2026), ADAMS ML26028A093 (U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 2026-01-27) primary government “requested that the case be held in abeyance for 45 more days”
• First Amended Complaint for Declaratory Relief and Vacatur, State of Texas et al. v. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, No. 6:24-cv-00507-JDK (E.D. Tex.), Document 10 (U.S. District Court, E.D. Tex. filing (posted by the Arizona House of Representatives), 2025-04-07) primary filing “vacatur of the Utilization Facility Rule and remand to the NRC for a new rulemaking”