NOVA ran on a federal lab's machine, staff and site, with the core and fuel Valar provided; who paid for the lab's part, and under what agreement, was not found in public records

recordconfirmed

2025-11-17 · fund-012 · Valar Atomics, Los Alamos National Laboratory, National Criticality Experiments Research Center, NNSA Nevada Field Office

Valar's joint release with Los Alamos (18 Nov 2025) divides the work: Valar supplied the reactor core, the TRISO fuel and the system configuration; Los Alamos's National Criticality Experiments Research Center, which the release calls the United States' only general-purpose critical-experiments facility, supplied the critical assembly, the facility safety envelope, experimentalists, instruments, the experiment platform and reflectors, data analysis and validation oversight, under the oversight of NNSA's Nevada Field Office. The release adds that the center is supported by DOE's Nuclear Criticality Safety Program, 'funded and managed by the National Nuclear Security Administration for the Department of Energy', and quotes DOE's deputy assistant secretary for nuclear reactors on 'leveraging all DOE capabilities' for the pilot program. ANS Nuclear Newswire's report describes the same split, adds that Los Alamos 'also provided many of the components used', and quotes Valar's chief executive, in a statement to Wired, saying the pilot program gives Valar access to sites, national-lab expertise and federal oversight. Neither names the agreement type (for example a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement or a Strategic Partnership Project) or says who paid for the lab's time. No NOVA-related award was found on USAspending as of late September 2026. The NOVA result is one of the 'firsts' Valar used in its Series B pitch (fund-007).

In plain termsValar's first chain reaction happened inside a government laboratory, on government equipment, run by national-laboratory scientists at a federal site in Nevada. By the release's account, Valar provided the core and the fuel. Whether Valar paid the full cost of the lab's time, or taxpayers covered some of it, is not in any public document found.

Los Alamos National Laboratory and Valar Atomics Announce Project NOVA Criticality Milestone in Nevada (Valar Atomics / LANL, 2025-11-18) primary company “Valar Atomics provided the reactor core, TRISO fuel, and system configuration.”
Valar achieves cold criticality at LANL (American Nuclear Society, Nuclear Newswire, 2025-11-18) news “Valar provided the reactor core, system configuration, and the TRISO fuel itself.”
USAspending award search, recipient 'VALAR ATOMICS', every award-type group (contracts, IDVs, grants, loans, direct payments, other), FY2008 to Sept 30, 2026 (run in late September 2026; one result, $0) (USAspending.gov (U.S. Department of the Treasury)) primary government

verified 2026-10-02: Re-verified in late September 2026: NOVA release and ANS re-read; quotes exact. Added the release's own line that the center is NNSA-funded, which bears on who carried the cost.

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