DOE's categorical exclusion describes the spent fuel as 'a single core loading' to be put in dry storage casks for transport to a 'DOE-approved facility', which it does not name; about 6 months of in-vessel cooldown and 6 months of decommissioning follow 12 months of operation. It estimates under 1 cubic metre a year of solid low-level waste (filters, clothing, small equipment) sent to a licensed disposal site, says no radioactive waste will be left on site after decommissioning, and says the site returns to unrestricted use. The NSDA says defueling will send spent fuel 'to appropriate storage' and decommissioning will return the site to unrestricted use. DOE-STD-1271 lists 'Responsibilities and Liabilities for Decommissioning and Disposition of Wastes' among the topics the DOE contract should cover; that contract (the OTA) is not public, and DOE's reactor-pilot release says companies bear all decommissioning costs (orig-041). Utah's 2026 law exempts interim storage of waste from a DOE-authorized test reactor at a state-owned facility from the state's high-level-waste ban, but only if the Division of Waste Management and Radiation Control permits and licenses it; no such permit or application naming Valar was found (csite-023). Where the spent fuel will go, when, and who pays if Valar cannot are not stated in any record read.

• NEPA Determination DOE-ID-26-005: Valar Ward250 Research Reactor (categorical exclusion B5.26) (U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy (Idaho), 2026-04-22) primary government “dry storage casks for transport to DOE-approved facility”
• NEPA Determination DOE-ID-26-005: Valar Ward250 Research Reactor (categorical exclusion B5.26) (U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy (Idaho), 2026-04-22) primary government “No radioactive waste will be left on site after decommissioning.”
• Ward250 Nuclear Safety Design Agreement, No. 100403, Rev 02 (status: Draft; issued for Public Release) (Valar Atomics, 2025-10) primary company “Facility decommissioning returns the site to unrestricted use”
• DOE-STD-1271-2025, Authorization Pathway for Nuclear Facilities (August 2025; DOE standard, copy posted by the Nuclear Innovation Alliance) (U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy, 2025-08) primary government “Responsibilities and Liabilities for Decommissioning and Disposition of Wastes”