Table 7 of Valar's Nuclear Safety Design Agreement (October 2025, page 53) set these targets: NSDA submittal 22 Sept 2025 (status 'In Review'), preliminary safety analysis (PDSA) 1 Nov 2025, final safety analysis (DSA) 6 Jan 2026, each with a 45-day DOE review; construction complete 13 April 2026; phased readiness review; initial criticality 30 June 2026. The record: DOE's PDSA approval is known only from POWER's report linking to Valar's own posts, as February 2026, and final DSA approval as 23 April 2026 (safe-006); set against the table's submittal dates plus the 45-day reviews (about mid-December 2025 and about 20 February 2026), each came roughly two months later; the reactor was flown in unfueled on 15 February 2026 (orig-030); DOE's environmental determination was signed 22 April 2026 and speaks of construction in the past tense; DOE approved the fuel-shipping package on 20 May 2026 (safe-010); Valar told the state lab board in May that DOE's readiness team had reviewed it (gov-037); DOE announced criticality on 18 June 2026 (orig-010), 12 days before the table's 30 June target (plan-005 on the exact date). The promise that mattered most publicly, criticality before 4 July 2026, holds (fund-020). None of the DOE approvals themselves (PDSA, DSA, safety requirements, readiness report, startup approval) has been published (safe-007).

• Ward250 Nuclear Safety Design Agreement, No. 100403, Rev 02, Appendix B, Table 7: Project Milestones (Valar Atomics, 2025-10) primary company “Initial Criticality 06/30/2026”
• NEPA Determination DOE-ID-26-005: Valar Ward250 Research Reactor (U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy, 2026-04-22) primary government “Construction was confined to the existing USREL site with minimally invasive excavation.”
• Department of Energy Celebrates Second Advanced Reactor Achieving Criticality (U.S. Department of Energy, 2026-06-18) primary government