VALAR WATCH
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374 facts · 512 sources · updated 2026-09-30

Fact loc-004

newanalysisconfirmed Jobs, as told locally: '20-40' local hires and a 12-month test (2025), 275 jobs to the state (2026), 'dozens' hired
undated · loc-004 · Valar Atomics, Dennis Worwood, Jordan Leonard, Harry Hansen, Max Ukropina, Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity · average wage of the 275 projected jobs (state incentive file): $137,567

Job figures on the record, in order: at the 8 July 2025 town hall, about 40 employees for roughly 12 months of testing, with local contractors for construction (ETV, 9 July 2025; orig-045); at the Carbon/Emery economic development group's September 2025 meeting, Emery Commissioner Dennis Worwood said Valar planned to hire 20-40 more local employees (ETV, 6 Oct 2025); on 10 October 2025 ETV reported the research at the lab had 'only brought in a few dozen jobs', mostly engineers from outside the area, and that a later Carbon County manufacturing hub could bring hundreds (loc-034); on 11 December 2025 Valar's Jess Housekeeper told Orangeville's council Valar was looking for 30-40 workers over the next six months (minutes); in February 2026 a USU Eastern housing study presented to a local housing committee counted Valar as planning to employ about 40 technicians and contractors (ETV, 24 Feb 2026); on 15 April 2026 Housekeeper told Ferron's council that Valar employed 120 people in Emery County, 'a lot' of them not living in Utah, with 15-20 full-time employees at the site plus construction workers and electricians (minutes); on 9 July 2026 the state's economic development board approved a tax credit on Valar's projection of 275 jobs at an average wage of $137,567 in Emery County with $1.3 billion of investment (csite-024); on 13 August 2026 Valar's Harry Hansen told the Orangeville council Valar had recently hired 40 new employees from the Castle Country area (ETV, 20 Aug); on 19 August Valar told the Carbon County Commission it had hired local residents from closed coal operations (minutes); on 10 September Max Ukropina said Valar has hired dozens of community members (ETV, 14 Sept). Emery Commissioner Jordan Leonard said in August that local hiring by Valar had drawn workers from other local jobs, opening places for returning families (ETV, 14 Aug). No figure for jobs at the Carbon County campus appears in the Trust Lands records summarized in carbon_site.json. The figures are not in conflict on their face: they count different things (site staff, contractors, everyone working for Valar in Emery) at different stages, and the April figure shows that many of the people then working for Valar in Emery did not live in Utah. The 275-job figure is a projection tied to a state tax credit that is paid only after the new tax revenue comes in (csite-024); no public count of Valar's Utah payroll exists to check the local figures against.

In plain termsThe job numbers people heard grew with the plan: about 40 for a one-year test in 2025, 275 promised to the state in 2026 to qualify for a tax break, and 'dozens' or '40' local hires reported since. In April 2026 Valar itself said 120 people were working for it in Emery County, many of whom did not live in Utah, with 15-20 full-time staff at the site. None of these numbers is false on its face; they count different things. The 275 is a promise the state pays for only after the jobs and taxes show up, and the local hiring counts are the company's own, with no public payroll to check them against.
verified 2026-09-29: Corrected Worwood's remark to the group's September 2025 meeting (ETV reported it 6 Oct). Replaced a quote that did not bear on jobs. Added three primary figures the pass missed: 30-40 workers (Orangeville, Dec 2025), 120 employed in Emery with many living out of state and 15-20 full-time at the site (Ferron, Apr 2026), local coal-worker hiring (Carbon, Aug 2026).

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