Valar Watch · Fact gov-029

Fact gov-029

newrecordconfirmed In the Federal Register, Valar appears once: on a list of 84 fuel-pact signers; no notice about Ward 250 itself

2026-09-29 · gov-029 · Federal Register, U.S. Department of Energy, Valar Atomics

A search of the Federal Register's public API on 29 September 2026 for 'Valar Atomics', 'Valar', 'Ward250' and 'Ward 250' returns one document: the 6 July 2026 Defense Production Act agreement listing Valar among 84 signers (gov-001). No Federal Register notice names Ward 250, the San Rafael Energy Lab, a Valar environmental review, a DOE authorization or a comment period for Valar. The rules that governed Ward 250 did appear there in general form: Executive Order 14301 (29 May 2025) and DOE's categorical exclusion B5.26 (2 February 2026, effective on publication, comments taken afterward to 4 March; safe-029, csite-020). The Ward 250 categorical exclusion itself (22 April 2026) was posted on DOE's website, with a June 2026 web path, not in the Register. The Reactor Pilot Program request for applications ran on FedConnect (gov-007). The federal process for this reactor therefore gave the public no Valar-specific Federal Register notice and no comment period; the one Valar-specific federal decision document found, the categorical exclusion, was posted on DOE's website.

In plain termsThe Federal Register is where the U.S. government announces things the public is entitled to know about and comment on. Valar's name appears there only once, in a list of companies that signed a fuel-supply agreement. There was never a federal notice saying 'a company plans to start a reactor in Emery County; comment here'. The rules that allowed that were announced in general terms, but nothing specific to this reactor was.

Federal Register API search: 'Valar Atomics' (1 result), also 'Valar', 'Ward250', 'Ward 250' (run 2026-09-29) (Office of the Federal Register (federalregister.gov API)) primary government
Implementing Voluntary Agreements Under the Defense Production Act (FR Doc. 2026-13486) (Federal Register (GPO govinfo), 2026-07-06) primary government
NEPA Determination DOE-ID-26-005: Valar Ward250 Research Reactor (categorical exclusion B5.26) (U.S. Department of Energy, Idaho Operations Office, 2026-04-22) primary government

verified 2026-09-29: Re-ran the Federal Register API for 'Valar Atomics', 'Valar', 'Ward250', 'Ward 250' and 'San Rafael Energy' 2026-09-29 (1, 1, 0, 0, 0 results) and re-read the CX (signed 2026.04.22). Holds; last sentence made more exact.

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