(a) 'First criticality ever achieved by a venture-backed company' and, on its Castle Country page, the first startup in history to split the atom (Project NOVA, November 2025): the core ran on a Los Alamos machine operated by Los Alamos staff; holds only in that narrow sense (orig-047). (b) 'The first company ever to take a nuclear reactor critical outside of a national lab' (Series B, August 2026): does not hold as written; General Atomics, a company founded by General Dynamics in 1955 and not a national laboratory, commissioned its first TRIGA research reactor at its own site on May 3, 1958 (a 2008 conference abstract indexed by DOE's OSTI), and DOE's own wording is narrower, the first DOE-authorized reactor built outside a national lab (ppl-030, orig-010). (c) 'The first-ever C-17 airlift of a nuclear reactor' (Castle Country page): holds as worded; broader 'first air transport' framing in coverage does not, since the Partnership for Global Security notes earlier U.S. military air transport of small reactors, including two Russian TOPAZ-II space reactors flown by C-5 in 1992 (orig-073). (d) 'The first time in history a startup generated nuclear power' and 'the first and only time that an advanced reactor has directly powered AI infrastructure' (Series B): not testable; no independent measurement of Ward 250's output has been published (orig-013). (e) The world's first binding Coordinated Research Project for an advanced reactor, with PNRI (state release boilerplate, September 2025): not checkable (orig-064). (f) Its reactor more photographed and filmed than any other in history (June 2026 draft): not testable. (g) Moving from concept to hardware faster than any team since the early days of nuclear (August 2025 post): not testable.

• Los Alamos National Laboratory and Valar Atomics Announce Project NOVA Criticality Milestone in Nevada (Valar Atomics / LANL, 2025-11-18) primary company “securing the first criticality ever achieved by a venture-backed company”
• Announcing our $1B Series B Led By Sequoia (Isaiah Taylor) (Valar Atomics, 2026-08-04) primary company “the first company ever to take a nuclear reactor critical outside of a national lab”
• Castle Country | Valar Atomics (Valar Atomics) primary company “the first-ever C-17 airlift of a nuclear reactor”
• A Hollywood Highlight Reel for the Nuclear Renaissance (Ken Luongo) (Partnership for Global Security, 2026-03-13) analysis “not the first time a small reactor had been transported by the US military”
• Valar Atomics breaks ground on test reactor at the Utah San Rafael Energy Lab (Utah Office of Energy Development release) (Utah Office of Energy Development (published by Utah Business), 2025-09-17) primary government “signed the world’s first binding Coordinated Research Project for an advanced reactor”
• Ward 250 By the Numbers (unlisted draft page) (Valar Atomics, 2026-06-28) primary company “Our reactor has been more photographed, video’d, podcasted, than any other nuclear reactor in history”
• Valar Atomics Selected for the President's Accelerated Nuclear Program (Isaiah Taylor) (Valar Atomics, 2025-08-12) primary company “faster than any other team since the early days of nuclear”
• TRIGA International - History of Training Research Isotope production General Atomics (conference abstract, 4th World TRIGA Users Conference, 2008) (U.S. DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (ETDEWEB), 2008-10-29) analysis “First TRIGA reactor Mk-1 was commissioned on 3 may 1958 at G.A.”