Before long, Valar had emerged as what Mother Jones called ​“the Trump administration’s favorite nuclear startup.” A month later, the agency named the company as one of four to take part in a separate pilot program to develop new supply chains for nuclear fuel. Two months after that, Valar became the first venture-backed startup to split atoms using an experimental core at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The airlift, touted by the Trump administration as ​“groundbreaking,” was the first demonstration that a microreactor could be wholly transported by plane. In June, Valar split atoms with its prototype Ward 250, becoming the second company in the pilot program to do so.