Good morning.
Last night at 8:51pm Mountain Time, the Valar Atomics Nuclear Operations team brought Ward 250 to 10kW thermal output. We held this power level throughout the night.
This is another historic milestone from the Valar team, marking first nuclear power by a startup.
Many users praised Valar Atomics for achieving the first nuclear power output by a US startup, calling the milestone incredible progress toward the future.
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The reactor is still standing this morning at 10kW and will remain at this power output throughout the day until we achieve steady state. No electrons yet—we are rejecting this heat to atmosphere for now.
The Race to Criticality - June 22nd, 2026 - 12 days until July 4th, 2026
@valaratomics jumps to the top of the tracker! They achieved zero power criticality (ZPC) last week and now they have achieved low power criticality (LPC) at 10kW thermal.
Also—Mya is a hero. I took this photo at 12:01am last night. Smoothest HTGR driver in the world!
Although this is a small power output for a nuclear reactor, it is a monumental leap for advanced nuclear. Ward 250 is a power reactor; built not just to go critical, but with all the requisite systems to extract power from a core.
The Nuclear Operations team will continue to take Ward 250 through the remaining steps of power ascension until we reach full power, then will perform a variety of full power tests. We will continue to provide updates and learnings throughout power ascension.
This includes a helium loop, a reactor cavity cooling system, online helium filtering and purification, online radionuclide activity monitoring, wide range fission detection, nested nuclear HVAC and stack monitoring, a primary heat exchanger, and a control system built for power.
@isaiah_p_taylor @JoshuaSteinman Congrats to the team. Epic!!!!!
@dylan_robideaux @CWNazarian @valaratomics Might be kind of lonely up there for a while.
@isaiah_p_taylor beautiful
the rest of the field is in shambles and you guys are gonna crush it. I hope your success is astronomical
@isaiah_p_taylor This is absolutely incredible 🙏
@isaiah_p_taylor
@isaiah_p_taylor @jakobdiepen Epic bro!!
@dylan_robideaux @valaratomics I love this tracker!
Might be cool to also throw dates on the achieved milestones that aren't the most recent just so the reader can get a sense of the pace of the progression.
First Generation IV Power Reactor on American soil. First Nuclear Power by a Startup. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Good morning.
Last night at 8:51pm Mountain Time, the Valar Atomics Nuclear Operations team brought Ward 250 to 10kW thermal output. We held this power level throughout the night.
This is another historic milestone from the Valar team, marking first nuclear power by a startup.
@hapaxpo @CWNazarian @valaratomics True! Radiant appears to be skipping the July 4th deadline but going for full power later this summer. Time will tell though.
Also focus will soon shift to a commercialization race
@isaiah_p_taylor Inevitable
@isaiah_p_taylor Your team just keeps going
Like a (nuclear powered) energizer bunny
Incredible progress 📈
@v_abdelnour @dylan_robideaux @isaiah_p_taylor @valaratomics The amount of energy humans need is near infinite
There will be power laws and bigger / smaller winners
But anyone making power will probably have a good time
@isaiah_p_taylor The Valar Atomics <> Saudi Aramco spread continues to close
@isaiah_p_taylor Breathtaking execution 🇺🇸
