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UtahTechU.S. & World<br>Valar Atomics’ nuclear reactor reaches criticality in Utah<br>Valar Atomics the 2nd company chosen by the DOE to have its small modular reactor safely run all of its nuclear systems<br>Published: June 18, 2026, 8:34 p.m. MDT

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Jess Housekeeper, director of Utah operations for Valar Atomics, shows the top of the reactor as work continues on the facility at Valar Atomics in Orangeville on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, for a small modular reactor. Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

By Eva Terry<br>Eva Terry is a staff writer with the Politics and the West team, covering energy and the environment.

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KEY POINTS

Valar Atomics reached criticality with its Ward250 small modular reactor in Orangeville, Utah, marking a key milestone in advanced nuclear deployment under a federal pilot program.<br>The Department of Energy’s fast-track initiative, which also includes Antares Nuclear, is designed to test and validate reactor designs at smaller scale to accelerate commercial licensing toward the first operational SMRs in the United States.<br>The achievement builds on earlier zero-power testing of Valar’s NOVA Core and reflects a broader national effort to rapidly move advanced reactor designs from demonstration to deployment.

After four decades of stagnation, the United States is seeing a resurgence of nuclear technology. At about 4:30 p.m. Thursday afternoon, Valar Atomics’ small modular reactor in Orangeville, Utah, reached zero-power fueled criticality.<br>The feat marks the first time a Department of Energy-authorized reactor has been built outside of a national laboratory.<br>Valar’s founder and CEO Isaiah Taylor, 27, sat with his team as they slowly guided their reactor to criticality, the point at which a nuclear reactor achieves a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.<br>Huddled in Valar’s futuristic-looking control center, Taylor’s team of engineers rocked back and forth through the process. The test began Wednesday evening.<br>Just four months earlier, the U.S. military airlifted the components of the reactor, dubbed the “Ward250,” across three Air Force C-17s.<br>When the C-17s touched down at Utah’s Hill Air Force Base in February, Energy Secretary Chris Wright told his audience that the rapid acceleration in nuclear development was largely thanks to executive orders demanding “tremendous reform.”<br>Moments ago, Valar Atomics took Ward 250 critical for the first time. This fulfills President Trump’s EO 14301, which called for 3 advanced reactors to go critical by July 4th.

This is our second criticality as a company, and an important step toward our goal of power by July 4. pic.twitter.com/ZNVgKSarfV<br>— Isaiah Taylor - making nuclear reactors (@isaiah_p_taylor) June 18, 2026

Valar has become the second of 10 companies chosen by the DOE to have its small modular reactor safely run all of its nuclear systems. The first was Antares Nuclear’s Mark-0, tested at the Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls on June 4.<br>The DOE’s program puts Valar and Antares’ reactors one step closer to becoming the first operational small reactors in the U.S. Currently, the only operating SMRs include one in China and one in Russia.<br>A Valar Atomics Ward250 reactor sits in the back of a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III after being flown from California to Hill Air Force Base in Clearfield on Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News<br>Related<br>At just 27 years old, this entrepreneur is remaking America’s energy industry

Isaiah Taylor: ‘Our next goal is to make power ... before July 4′<br>Speaking from Valar’s site in Orangeville, Taylor thanked his team, Utah’s leadership and the Trump administration for helping Ward250 reach criticality.<br>“A few minutes ago, we took Ward250 critical,” Taylor said. “We have all been working insanely hard really for the last two years, but especially in the last week to prepare for this.”<br>He referenced the company’s founding on July 4, 2023.<br>“When I started this company less than three years ago, our guiding principle was that metal beats paper. There is an enormous amount of science that has been done in nuclear, an enormous amount of analysis. And all of these things are important and are helpful, but the biggest thing that was missing in nuclear energy was a mindset of learning and hardware,”...