Valar Transparency

Reading key: Red bold: kept confidential, left unnamed, or not found in the public record Bold: a key point, figure or date Green bold: made public, or in Valar's or an agency's favor

Public records on what was marked confidential, discussed in meetings with no notice on the state notice site, left unnamed in notices, or not found in the public record.

To watch

Valar's $106.7 million state tax credit requires a local incentive, a condition on all 13 tax credits the state's economic development board took up from April to September 2026

In short: the state's credit is a low-risk bet on growth, because it pays only if Valar's project actually creates the jobs and the new state taxes. If Valar's larger plans happen, the state keeps at least half of those new taxes, all of them once the 10-year credit ends, and the land payments go to Trust Lands for the public schools trust. Carbon and Emery collect property tax mostly on what gets built, and may give part of it back if they grant incentives, or lose part of it to a state fund if the land is put in a state energy zone. The local costs, and the long-term questions about waste and cleanup, stay local, and no record read has estimated them. Trust Lands' terms for the Carbon lease require a reclamation bond before construction, and its memo says the NRC will require financial assurance for decommissioning.

On July 9, 2026, the Governor's Office of Economic Development board approved up to $106,737,499 in tax credits for Valar's Emery County project: half of the new state tax revenue it generates for 10 years, paid only after that revenue comes in.
The credit is 'site specific and subject to local incentive participation': a local incentive proposal must be approved by the office's Incentives Committee before Valar can earn it. The same two terms appear in all 13 tax credits the board took up from April to September 2026.
At Emery County's April 7, 2026 hearing on selling Valar land, the minutes record that, asked what incentives the county had given Valar, 'The answer is None', and that a commissioner said Valar had 'not even asked for any tax incentive'.
For Carbon County, no state incentive for the Wellington campus was found in the board's records through September 2026. Since May 2025, state law has barred a county or city from offering financial incentives for a baseload power project outside a designated electrical energy development zone, with some exceptions, and since May 2026 the bar covers only nuclear projects; Trust Lands may apply for such a zone, and the Utah Energy Council decides; inside a zone, the new property tax growth goes to a state energy fund unless agreements say otherwise. Whether that rule would apply to a Valar project, in either county, is a legal question.
On waste: the slides Trust Lands staff showed its board say nuclear waste is 'strictly prohibited' on the leased Carbon land, but the staff memo lets Valar buy land for interim spent-fuel storage, which would first need federal and state licenses; Utah's July 2026 agreement with DOE to establish a Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus calls for a later host agreement that 'shall address the acceptance and management of out-of-state used nuclear fuel'. The July agreement names no site; the governor's March 2026 release named Tooele County as the candidate host, and no record read places that campus in Carbon or Emery County.

What to watch for

An item on an incentive for Valar on an Emery County Commission, Community Reinvestment Agency or Orangeville City agenda (in May 2026 the county voted to send notices to annex the parcel it approved selling to Valar, and the state lab's parcel, into Orangeville).
An energy development zone application for the Wellington land, or an incentive item for Valar on a Carbon County agenda.

The board's agendas named none of its 13 tax-credit applicants from April to September 2026; Valar's was handled the same way.

The record: csite-024, gov-022, mine-010, csite-008, gov-030; Emery County Commission Meeting Minutes, April 7, 2026 (Emery County Commission (Utah Public Notice Website), 2026-04-07); Utah Code 79-6-1104: Electrical energy development zones (effective 5/6/2026) (Utah State Legislature, 2026-05-06); H.B. 249 Nuclear Power Amendments, 2025 General Session, Enrolled Copy (79-6-1104 as enacted in 2025) (Utah State Legislature, 2025-03); GOED Public Board Materials, July 9, 2026 (proposed motions: the local-incentive term) (Governor's Office of Economic Development (Utah Public Notice Website), 2026-07-09); 09.17.2026 TLA Board Packet (SULA 2095-OBA memorandum: spent fuel storage, reclamation bond and NRC financial assurance) (Utah Trust Lands Administration (Utah Public Notice Website), 2026-09-17); Emery County Commission Meeting Minutes, May 19, 2026 (annexation notices to Orangeville) (Emery County Commission (Utah Public Notice Website), 2026-05-19)

Marked confidential

16 May 2025The state's earliest agreement with Valar found in public records (May 16, 2025) made it and 'related information' confidential, except as required by law, and barred publicity without consent; the energy office uses similar terms with some other nuclear companiesMemorandum of Understanding between the Office of Energy Development and Valar Atomics, dated May 16, 2025 (signatures omitted) (Utah Office of Energy Development, 2026-01-12) The record (gov-011) →
Checked 2 Oct 2026'Not trying to keep anything from anyone', said the lab director; the state's MOU with Valar said it and related information were confidential, except as required by law; the energy office uses similar terms with some other nuclear companiesMemorandum of Understanding between the Office of Energy Development and Valar Atomics, dated May 16, 2025 (signatures omitted) (Utah Office of Energy Development, 2026-01-12) The record (disc-030) →

Notices and agendas that did not name Valar or the use

2024Valar says it met Carbon County and state offices in 2024, initially about making fuels from coal-plant exhaust; a public agenda first named Valar for the Wellington site in Aug 20262026-08-20 TLA Board of Trustees Meeting Audio Transcript (auto-generated) (Utah Trust Lands Administration (Utah Public Notice Website), 2026-08-20) The record (ppl-027) →
8 Jul 2026The notice rule protects the application's confidentiality; Trust Lands' Wellington notice named neither Valar nor any useUtah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration Agency Rulebook, 39th Edition (Sept 2025), Rule R850-30 (Utah Trust Lands Administration, 2025-09) The record (csite-005) →
15 Jul 2026The Wellington notice ran in ETV July 15-29 and named no use; of three other Trust Lands notices read from that paper, two named a use and one gave only a lease numberTRUST LANDS OPPORTUNITY (legal notice: Township 14 South, Range 11 East, Section 16, near Wellington) (Utah Trust Lands Administration (legal notice published in ETV News), 2026-07-15) The record (loc-032) →
28 Jul 2026Board committees discussed the lease before the vote, as they did other deals; no notices of the board's committee meetings were found on the state notice website09.17.2026 TLA Board Packet (Item 10A: SULA 2095-OBA Board of Trustees Memorandum, Carbon County letter, lease map) (Utah Trust Lands Administration (Utah Public Notice Website), 2026-09-17) The record (csite-017) →
10 Aug 2026Valar first appears on a public Trust Lands agenda on Aug 10, 2026, for the full board's initial consideration of the lease, four months after it was mappedTrust Lands Administration Board of Trustees Meeting, April 16, 2026 (notice and packet) (Utah Public Notice Website, 2026-04-16) The record (csite-018) →
Checked 2 Oct 2026Officials praised Valar as open and 'not hiding anything', citing its public education; Carbon County's agendas and minutes read did not name the site2026-08-20 TLA Board of Trustees Meeting Audio Transcript (auto-generated) (Utah Trust Lands Administration (Utah Public Notice Website), 2026-08-20) The record (disc-031) →

Records not found in the public record

17 Nov 2025NOVA 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 recordsLos Alamos National Laboratory and Valar Atomics Announce Project NOVA Criticality Milestone in Nevada (Valar Atomics / LANL, 2025-11-18) The record (fund-012) →
28 Jun 2026Valar calls itself 'very open and transparent', pointing to its photos and video; of its Ward 250 safety papers, two were found published, and the others, most listed for DOE review, were not found in public recordsWard 250 By the Numbers (unlisted company page with placeholders, signed Isaiah Taylor) (Valar Atomics (Isaiah Taylor), 2026-06-28) The record (safe-040) →
Sep 2026What DOE has made public about Ward 250 safety, and what was not found: no DSA, TSRs, SER or startup approval, though DOE says its teams reviewed Ward 250's readiness before startupNEPA Determination DOE-ID-26-005: Valar Ward250 Research Reactor (categorical exclusion B5.26) (U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy (Idaho), 2026-04-22) The record (safe-007) →
Sep 2026Incidents: none found in public records read, but DOE keeps occurrence reports closed to the public department-wide, 'for security purposes'Ward250 Nuclear Safety Design Agreement, No. 100403, Rev 02 (status: Draft; issued for Public Release) (Valar Atomics, 2025-10) The record (safe-033) →
Sep 2026No Form D from Valar Atomics Inc. was found on EDGAR for any round, $1B included; only nine outside investment pools filed; the SEC ties the notice to Regulation D sales, and which exemption Valar used was not foundEDGAR company search: 'valar atomics' (7 registrants, all investment-pool series; no Valar Atomics Inc.) (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) The record (fund-010) →