Deseret News reports that U.S. Rep. Celeste Maloy (Utah) joined Valar's team in the control room in the final stretch to criticality on 18 June 2026. At the 1 July 2026 'Watts Next?' event in Orangeville, state Sen. David Hinkins, who spoke of his own history with Orangeville and Emery County, thanked the Legislature and the state Community Impact Board for supporting the project so that its cost did not fall on local taxpayers (ETV News); the Deseret News also placed him and OED director Emy Lesofski at the event (orig-042). Utah legislative interim committees heard an item on Valar's nuclear test reactor in June 2025 and a Valar-NVIDIA example in August 2026 (csite-031). None of these public appearances concerned the Carbon County site, and no legislator's statement on the Carbon lease was found as of 2026-09-29. What the Community Impact Board funded, and for whom, was not read in this pass (open question).

• Valar Atomics' nuclear reactor reaches criticality in Utah (Eva Terry) (Deseret News, 2026-06-18) news “In the final stretch toward criticality, Utah Rep. Celeste Maloy joined the team.”
• Emery County takes center stage as Valar and Nvidia power historic breakthrough (ETV News, 2026-07-01) news “prevented the cost from being placed on local taxpayers”