VALAR WATCH
Key findingsTheir claims, annotatedEvidenceTake action
374 facts · 512 sources · updated 2026-09-30

Fact plan-014

newrecordconfirmed Fuel today: HALEU TRISO approved for shipment from a federal site in Nevada; its maker and owner are not public
2026-05-20 · plan-014 · Valar Atomics, U.S. Department of Energy, Savannah River National Laboratory, National Criticality Experiments Research Center, Los Alamos National Laboratory

The only fuel supply for Valar on the record is DOE's: a Safety Evaluation Report approved 20 May 2026 lets Savannah River's shipping package carry 'limited shipments' of HALEU TRISO fuel compacts from the National Criticality Experiments Research Center in Nevada to the Ward 250 site, at most 24 packages, one Valar-designed graphite fuel block each, expiring 30 June 2027 or when shipments end (safe-010, safe-011, safe-012). The report describes each block as 170 TRISO compacts holding 234.94 grams of uranium-235 at under 20% enrichment. Valar's own safety agreement (NSDA, October 2025, Table 6) lists the fuel enrichment as '4.95% U-235' on the basis of 'LEU limits'; the two documents describe different fuel, and no document read explains the difference (disc-001). No public record read gives the dates the fuel actually moved (plan-025). Neither that report nor Valar's NOVA release nor World Nuclear News's NOVA report (21 November 2025) names who fabricated the TRISO particles or compacts, or who owns the high-assay uranium; Valar is not in DOE's three announced HALEU allocation rounds (gov-008). Valar's Series B post says it 'will not rely on outside suppliers' and will make fuel in labs beside its reactors (orig-070), and its Carbon plan has uranium shipped in as HALEU, LEU+ or LEU (csite-007). But making TRISO still needs enriched uranium from an enrichment plant; Valar has no enrichment capacity, and a web search in the earlier pass found no supply contract with any U.S. enricher (Centrus, Urenco, Orano, General Matter). For comparison, World Nuclear News reported on 18 September 2026 that the fuel for Antares's criticality test, another DOE pilot reactor, was supplied by BWX Technologies, and that Antares had signed a multi-year HALEU supply contract with Centrus (the article gives no signing date). Valar is one of 84 signers of DOE's Defense Production Act fuel-cycle pact (gov-001), which is a framework, not a supply contract.

In plain termsDOE approved shipping Valar's uranium fuel from a federal nuclear site in Nevada, in special drums. Valar's own safety paperwork lists the fuel at 4.95 percent enrichment, while DOE's shipping approval allows up to 19.9 percent; the two describe different fuel, and nothing we read explains why. Nobody has said publicly who made that fuel or who owns the uranium in it. Valar says it will make its own fuel from now on, but even so it has to buy enriched uranium from someone, because it cannot enrich uranium itself. No such purchase deal has been made public.
verified 2026-09-29: Verify pass 2026-09-29: DOE SER (9979 R20 LA1) re-read: NCERC to Ward 250 site, 24 packages, 170 compacts and 234.94 g U-235 per block at under 20%, expires 30 June 2027. Fixed: 'shipped' -> 'approved for shipment' (no shipment record is public); Antares contract date was the report date. Added the NSDA's 4.95% entry beside DOE's HALEU (disc-001). Negative search for an enrichment contract not re-run in this pass (web-search budget spent). Correction 2026-09-29 (calculation audit): plain: 'just under 20 percent' now 'up to 19.9 percent' (a ceiling).

In tabs: plans, operations, safety, government · file plans_ops