KEY POINTSValar 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. 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. 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…