Valar Watch · Fact gov-008

Fact gov-008

newanalysisconfirmed DOE's three announced HALEU rounds named nine recipients; Valar was never among them, yet Ward 250 got HALEU

2026-07-23 · gov-008 · U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, Valar Atomics, HALEU Availability Program

DOE's HALEU Availability Program is the announced route by which companies get high-assay low-enriched uranium from federal stocks, including NNSA material. DOE's releases name the recipients of each round's conditional commitments (ten commitments to nine recipients; Radiant twice): round 1 (9 April 2025, 15 companies had applied) TRISO-X, Kairos, Radiant, Westinghouse and TerraPower; round 2 (26 August 2025) Antares, Standard Nuclear and Abilene Christian University/Natura; round 3 (23 July 2026) NASA and Radiant again. Valar is not in any of them. DOE's Fuel Line Pilot launch release makes each company responsible for 'the procurement of all nuclear material feedstock' (gov-007), and its 30 September 2025 selection release, which named Valar, says selected companies may apply for HALEU through the HALEU Availability Program (orig-032). Set beside that: Valar says it supplied the HALEU TRISO fuel for NOVA at Los Alamos's Nevada criticality center (orig-008), and DOE's own May 2026 packaging review cleared limited shipments of HALEU TRISO fuel compacts, packed in a Valar graphite fuel block holding about 235 grams of uranium-235 at under 20% enrichment, from that federal center to Ward 250, with DOE's Savannah River Operations Office as the applicant (safe-010, safe-012). No public record read says where Valar's HALEU came from, who owns it, whether it is federal material on loan, or on what terms. The pilot program's own Request for Application, as summarized by the law firm Hogan Lovells, told applicants needing HALEU to 'ensure they are in the allocation process' of that program (gov-032). This is a gap in the public record, not evidence of wrongdoing; the fuel may have been supplied under the OTA or another agreement that is not public (gov-003).

In plain termsHALEU is uranium enriched to between 5% and 20%, more than ordinary power-plant fuel, and DOE says none is available from domestic suppliers, so DOE hands out federal stock through an announced program. In its three announced rounds DOE named every company it promised HALEU to, and Valar is not on the list. Yet DOE's own shipping paperwork shows HALEU fuel going from a federal site in Nevada to Valar's Utah reactor. Where that uranium came from, who owns it and what Valar paid or promised for it is not public; a FOIA request would answer it.

U.S. Department of Energy to Distribute First Amounts of HALEU to U.S. Advanced Reactor Developers (U.S. Department of Energy, 2025-04-09) primary government “DOE received HALEU requests from 15 companies.”
U.S. Department of Energy to Distribute Next Round of HALEU to U.S. Nuclear Industry (U.S. Department of Energy, 2025-08-26) primary government
Energy Department to Distribute Third Round of HALEU to NASA and Radiant (U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy, 2026-07-23) primary government
Safety Evaluation Report, Letter Amendment of Certificate of Compliance No. 9979 (Docket 26-35-9979) (U.S. Department of Energy, Packaging Certification Program, 2026-05-20) primary government
DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy issues Request for Application for Reactor Pilot Program (Daniel Stenger, Stewart Forbes, Valerie Marshall) (Hogan Lovells, 2025-07-01) analysis “ensure they are in the allocation process to receive HALEU”
Energy Department Selects Four Companies for Advanced Nuclear Fuel Line Pilot Projects (U.S. Department of Energy, 2025-09-30) primary government “Companies may apply to receive high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU)”

verified 2026-09-29: Re-read the three HALEU releases, the 9979 SER (20 May 2026) and Hogan Lovells 2026-09-29. Fixed: 'ten recipients' was ten commitments to nine recipients; the HALEU-application line comes from DOE's Sept 2025 selection release (now cited), not the July launch release; the SER covers fuel compacts in a graphite block. The core gap (no public HALEU allocation to Valar) holds.

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