Valar AtomicsIn Development
A 100 kWt TRISO-fueled, graphite-moderated, helium-cooled high-temperature gas test reactor at the Utah San Rafael Energy Lab - roughly minivan-sized before shielding - built to demonstrate the reactor architecture Valar plans to mass-produce, with the design scalable to 5 MWe per unit.
Latest update Sep 19, 2026
01
Operating as a DOE-authorized test reactor (not a licensed commercial unit): fueled criticality June 18, 2026; first DOE pilot reactor to full power June 23; generated 100 kW powering Nvidia Blackwell chips July 1. A September 10, 2026 community open house at Orangeville confirmed the reactor is still in a non-commercial power-ascension and test campaign, with no newer public power milestone as of September 19, 2026.
02
03
Announced next steps from Valar Atomics that mention Ward250.
2026-2027
Valar says its $1B Series B is earmarked to build reactor-manufacturing factories that scale output from single units toward 'tens, then hundreds, then thousands' of reactors per year, and to stand up in-house TRISO fuel production tied to its DOE Fuel Line Pilot Program selection - vertically integrating the hardware supply chain from deployment through long-term operations and fuel. The first piece of that fuel buildout is already under construction: a co-located Valarin Fuel Fabrication Facility next to Ward250 at the Utah site, intended to manufacture TRISO-coated particle fuel in graphite compacts using German HOBEG-derived technology. On September 18, 2026 Utah Trust Lands approved a Carbon County Special Use Lease covering up to 640 acres (starting at 480 acres for 50 years near Wellington and Price) as Valar's first named expansion site beyond the Emery County test lab; construction still requires development plans and local, state, and federal permits, and no factory opening date has been announced.
H2 2026
Ward250 has begun non-commercial power ascension following its June 2026 criticality and full-power runs; Valar says it will share further test milestones as the campaign progresses through the rest of 2026. A September 10, 2026 community open house at Orangeville confirmed the reactor is still operating, but no new public power milestone had been reported as of September 19, 2026 beyond the July 1 Nvidia Blackwell demonstration.
04
Nuclear startup Valar Atomics closed a $1 billion Series B on August 3 led by Sequoia Capital's Shaun Maguire, who joins the board, tripling the company's valuation to $6 billion just months after its $2 billion March round. Valar also secured a separate $200 million credit facility, with the new capital earmarked for shifting its Ward250 reactor design from prototype to factory-built, mass-produced small modular reactors.
Nuclear startup Valar Atomics is reportedly in talks to raise roughly $1 billion at about a $6 billion valuation, with Sequoia Capital said to be leading alongside existing backers Palmer Luckey and Shyam Sankar. The mark would triple Valar's $2 billion valuation from its March 2026 round, driven by its Ward250 reactor reaching criticality and full power in June and a subsequent Nvidia data-center partnership announcement.
05
Valar's commercial concept: industrial campuses hosting hundreds to thousands of mass-produced HTGR units (each scalable to ~5 MWe) generating grid-independent electricity, sulfur-iodine-cycle hydrogen, and synthetic hydrocarbon fuels from captured CO2 for data centers, heavy industry, and transportation.
A 100 kW TRISO-fueled research microreactor being developed in the Philippines with the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute through Valar's local arm VARI (Valar Atomics Research Institute), intended for the University of the Philippines Diliman campus as a standalone, non-grid-connected demonstration unit.
06
NuScale Power
Full-scale SMR power plant with 12 modules generating up to 924 MWe of carbon-free electricity.
NuScale Power
Self-contained 77 MWe pressurized water reactor module with integrated steam generators.
NuScale Power
Mid-size SMR plant configuration with 6 modules producing up to 462 MWe.
Oklo
Oklo's fast-fission powerhouse product line is designed for build-own-operate deployment, targeting customers that want firm clean power in a smaller footprint than traditional large reactors.