The two market-leading radioactive waste disposal companies are awaiting a Delaware federal judge's ruling on whether their $367 million merger can proceed after a two-week antitrust trial wrapped up in Wilmington on May 5.

At issue in the case was whether the union between EnergySolutions Inc. and Waste Control Specialists was presumptively illegal and would lead to higher prices and less innovation—a question made all the more important as nuclear reactor decommissioning are expected to rise in the coming years.

The U.S. Department of Justice sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware to halt in November, alleging violations of the Clayton Act. The proposed transaction, government attorneys argued, would create a “near-monopoly” for the disposal of commercially generated low-level radioactive waste, or LLRW, at a time when utilities are preparing to bid out decommissioning projects worth billions of dollars.