Fact mine-035
newrecordreported Emery site land: Valar's reactor sits on an 11-acre allotment at the state-owned lab the state bought from Emery County
ETV News (Susanna Watts, 10 October 2025) reported that the Utah Office of Energy Development bought the San Rafael Energy Lab in July 2024 after Emery County had run it for two years, that Valar's buildings were going up on an 11-acre allotment there, and that Valar must show that under worst-case conditions no damage or radiation passes the fence line of those 11 acres. At the Trust Lands hearings the Office of Energy Development's deputy directors said their office owns and operates the lab and that Valar is its tenant on state land. Valar later said it was buying about 110 acres north of the lab from Emery County (mine-018).
In plain termsThe test reactor is on a small fenced plot inside a state research campus, not on Valar's own land. The planned expansion onto county land next door would make Valar a landowner there.
- What's actually happening at the Utah San Rafael Energy Lab? (ETV News (Susanna Watts), 2025-10-10) news “Their buildings are currently under construction in their 11-acre allotment.”
- 2026-08-20 TLA Board of Trustees Meeting Audio Transcript (auto-generated) (Utah Trust Lands Administration (Utah Public Notice Website), 2026-08-20) primary government “the state agency that is that owns and operates the San Rafael Energy Lab”