Fact orig-007
Valar's Ward 250 page lists 'Ward 250 Groundbreaking' on 09.17.2025, and its Castle Country page lists a local news item from September 2025 about breaking ground at the Utah San Rafael Energy Lab. DOE's June 18, 2026 release quotes Taylor saying the site was empty nine months before criticality, consistent with a September 2025 start. Local-coverage details are in local.json. State records settle the ceremony date: the Office of Energy Development's slide update to the Legislature's interim committee (15 October 2025) says Valar 'held groundbreaking' on September 11, 2025, Emery County's 2 September 2025 minutes say ground would be broken 'on September 11', and the county economic board's minutes schedule it for that Thursday (gov-015, gov-021). 17 September 2025 is the day the joint state-Valar release was published (orig-067), which is the date Valar's page shows (disc-040).
- Ward 250 | Valar Atomics (Valar Atomics) primary company “Ward 250 Groundbreaking 09.17.2025”
- Department of Energy Celebrates Second Advanced Reactor Achieving Criticality (U.S. Department of Energy, 2026-06-18) primary government