Valar's own NOVA release (18 Nov 2025) says the experiment ran at NCERC, operated by Los Alamos inside the Nevada National Security Site, 'under the NNSA Nevada Field Office Oversight', supporting (not under) the Reactor Pilot Program, and quotes DOE Deputy Assistant Secretary Rian Bahran praising it. A release posted the same day by the Breakthrough Institute, a pro-nuclear policy group, went further: its headline says Valar achieved 'First Criticality in DOE Pilot Program' and its text calls Valar 'the first company in the U.S. to reach criticality' under the program, while also noting the Ward 250 project 'is separate'. DOE's own record says otherwise: its 4 June 2026 release calls Antares's Mark-0 at Idaho National Laboratory the first of the pilot projects to reach criticality, and its 18 June release calls Ward 250 the second (orig-010). The 'first in the pilot program' wording is the think tank's, not Valar's or DOE's; Valar's own 'first' claims are tested in orig-047 and orig-066.

• Los Alamos National Laboratory and Valar Atomics Announce Project NOVA Criticality Milestone in Nevada (Valar Atomics, 2025-11-18) primary company “The experiment was conducted under the NNSA Nevada Field Office Oversight”
• RELEASE: Valar Atomics Achieves First Criticality in DOE Pilot Program (The Breakthrough Institute, 2025-11-17) analysis “This milestone makes Valar the first company in the U.S. to reach criticality”
• Department of Energy Celebrates First Advanced Reactor Criticality (U.S. Department of Energy, 2026-06-04) primary government “we celebrate the first of the pilot projects to reach criticality”