EO 14301 places advanced reactors under DOE rather than NRC jurisdiction when DOE exercises sufficient control and they do 'not ... produce commercial electric power'. Valar says Ward 250 generated electricity on 1 July 2026, 'directly powering an NVIDIA chip' (orig-013; Deseret News reported the event, orig-042), and Valar and NVIDIA said they were exploring a 30 MW data center powered by Valar reactors (orig-042). No record read shows Ward 250 selling electricity. The Nuclear Innovation Alliance notes that the Atomic Energy Act lets DOE retain 'for its own account' the commercial application of an initial demonstration reactor, that section 44 governs the sale of electricity incidental to test and demonstration reactors, and that sales of electricity to third parties 'raise unresolved regulatory questions' for DOE and the NRC. DOE-STD-1271 says the DOE pathway is meant to accommodate 'leveraging into an NRC license'. On the record read, the July 1 demonstration stays inside the non-commercial line; any commercial use of Valar reactors would need NRC licensing (csite-010).

• Executive Order 14301, Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy, 90 FR 22591 (Executive Office of the President (Federal Register), 2025-05-29) primary government “and not to produce commercial electric power”
• Castle Country | Valar Atomics (Valar Atomics) primary company “directly powering an NVIDIA chip”
• A Review of Recent DOE Updates to Its Reactor Authorization Process (Nuclear Innovation Alliance) analysis “such sales raise unresolved regulatory questions for the DOE and NRC”
• 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 “intended to accommodate efficient and effective leveraging into an NRC license”