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June 2025 Emery hearing: lab director said Valar was 'looking at manufacturing in Emery or Carbon County'

recordconfirmed
2025-06-17 · gov-020 · Emery County Commission, Utah San Rafael Energy Lab, Jaron Wallace, Valar Atomics, NuCube

The earliest county meeting on Valar found in Emery County's posted minutes followed news reports: at the 3 June 2025 Emery County Commission meeting a commissioner referred to 'the article floating around and on social media' about reactors at the San Rafael Energy Research Center and said a public hearing had been set for 17 June (its notice was posted 29 May). The minutes of that 17 June 2025 hearing on 'Nuclear Industries in Emery County' record the state lab director, Jaron Wallace, saying Valar 'would like to build nuclear reactors at the Research Center' and was 'looking at manufacturing in Emery or Carbon County', that another company, NuCube, was also interested, and that permitting 'will take some time'; later he said 'Transparency is imperative. We are not trying to keep anything from anyone', that the meeting was 'the first of many', and that safety was 'the number one priority'. Residents spoke both ways: several supported nuclear power and jobs; others asked whether the county has any control over a state-owned site, worried about being 'by-passed by the State', security, waste staying in the county, and cancer in families exposed in the past; one said she had not heard enough to be convinced. Set beside the record: the OED-Valar MOU signed a month earlier said the agreement and related information were confidential and barred publicity without both parties' consent (gov-011), terms that yield to Utah's records law and that the energy office also uses with other nuclear developers; DOE's pathway gave the county no approval role over the reactor (safe-001). This is also the earliest public record found that ties Valar to Carbon County, fourteen months before the Trust Lands agenda of August 2026 (csite-018, ppl-027); it names the county, not a site.

In plain termsEmery County's commissioners held a public hearing on nuclear in June 2025 after residents saw news stories. There, the state's lab director said Valar wanted to build reactors at the lab and was looking at manufacturing in Emery or Carbon County. So Carbon County was mentioned in public over a year before Valar's name appeared on a Trust Lands agenda for the Wellington lease (August 2026), but only in passing, at an Emery County meeting, with no site named. Residents asked who actually controls a state-owned nuclear site; on the record, the reactor's authorization rests with the federal Energy Department, a state board approves projects at the state lab (gov-013), and the county commission later approved Valar's building permit (gov-021).
verified 2026-10-02: Re-read the 17 June 2025 hearing minutes, the 3 June minutes and the notice in late September 2026; all quotes exact; residents described, not named. Fixed: the hearing had already been noticed (29 May) when the 3 June meeting mentioned it; plain wording made neutral.

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