The Breakthrough Institute (Spencer Toohill and Adam Stein, 2 Oct 2025) quotes DOE, in material it links to the pilot program's request for applications on the FedConnect portal (which our tools cannot read, gov-032), saying a pilot reactor is 'considered a DOE reactor, and still covered under Price-Anderson indemnification', while the private developers own the reactors and bear all costs, and that any 'particular requirement' would be set in each company's Other Transaction Agreement. The authors say this leaves developers and investors uncertain about liability in an accident. DOE's 2023 Federal Register notice summarizes the law: subsection 170d of the Atomic Energy Act (the Price-Anderson Act) provides that the Secretary of Energy 'shall enter into agreements of indemnification' with anyone doing work under a DOE contract that carries a risk of public liability and is not covered by the NRC's financial-protection system; the same notice set DOE's indemnification amount at $16,592,154,000 per incident in the United States. Indemnification means the government, not the company, stands behind compensation claims up to that amount. Valar's OTA is not public (gov-003), so whether and how Ward 250 is indemnified is not confirmed from a primary record, and DOE's statement is dated only to 2025. Valar's safety design agreement (NSDA) does not mention Price-Anderson or indemnity. The state takes the opposite position for its own part: Utah's MOU with Valar says the state energy office cannot indemnify Valar (gov-011).

• Making DOE's Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program Work (Spencer Toohill, Adam Stein) (The Breakthrough Institute, 2025-10-02) analysis “considered a DOE reactor, and still covered under Price-Anderson indemnification”
• Making DOE's Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program Work (Spencer Toohill, Adam Stein) (The Breakthrough Institute, 2025-10-02) analysis “developers and investors face real uncertainty about financial liability in the event of an incident”
• Adjustment of Indemnification Amount for Inflation (FR Doc. 2023-25030) (U.S. Department of Energy, Office of the General Counsel (Federal Register, via GPO govinfo), 2023-11-14) primary government “shall enter into agreements of indemnification with any person who may conduct activities”