By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News
The Castle Dale community showed out en masse to the town’s monthly city council meeting on Thursday, March 12, as representatives from Valar Atomics were in attendance to explain their Ward-250 project and answer public questions.
Jess Housekeeper, the Director of Utah Operations for Valar Atomics, presented to the packed city council chambers, providing background on the company’s Ward-250 reactor project, which sits only five miles away from Castle Dale City Hall.
Originally from Ferron, Utah, Housekeeper has devoted his life to the energy industry, including a five-year stint with the Naval Nuclear Laboratory and serving as a Senior Engineer Project Manager for Pacificorp before joining Valar.
After introducing himself, Housekeeper gave a shoutout to some of the contractors that Valar is utilizing for the construction of its facility, namely Nielsen Construction which has provided the concrete for the facility, and TSJ Construction for the dirt work, among others.
“They’re very competitive in their pricing,” expressed Housekeeper. “We had a bid out for the electrical, and we got one that’s local right down to the truck … We want to support the local community in that way.”
Switching gears, Housekeeper walked the public through ‘Operation Windlord’, the collaborative effort between Valar and the Department of Defense to fly the Ward-250 reactor from California to Utah, where it was transported to the San Rafael Energy Research Lab.
Operation Windlord behind the scenes master thread.
Hundreds of people across DOE, DOW, and our own Valar team worked tirelessly to perform this demonstration. Thanks for following along for the first-ever C-17 airlift of a nuclear reactor.
Now on to power operations by July 4. https://t.co/KSZHtDIS1P
— Valar Atomics (@valaratomics) February 18, 2026
Additionally, Housekeeper recapped the community open house the company hosted to engage with the Emery County community and educate the public about the reactor and its purpose.
Last Thursday, we paused site work and opened up Ward250 to our community in Emery County.
Over 300 neighbors joined us for an evening of nuclear reactors and BBQ, and lots of people learned about how nuclear works for the first time.
Team Valar is grateful for Emery County! pic.twitter.com/monkBD8hcH
— Valar Atomics (@valaratomics) February 28, 2026
Speaking to the character of the area, Housekeeper spoke to the character of Emery County, saying that the pioneers who settled the area were “some of the greatest people around,” a tradition he believes continues to this day.
“Most of the people here that I’m looking at have at some point worked. The coal power plants and coal mines, or the supporting system of those,” he said. “I think it is quite a poetic gathering of people, technologies, and industries. To go from coal, to nuclear to whatever the energy future is and keep that energy industry here.”
Moving to public questions, Housekeeper was asked about the water usage that the reactor will create. The engineer explained that the facility has only about 10 acre-feet of water and that instead of water, the reactor is cooled by helium gas.
Speaking to the safety of the project, Housekeeper explained that most of the concerns associated with nuclear power come from the realm of weapons testing, making the statement that it’s like comparing a motorcycle to napalm: “They both work off fuel, but they’re very, very different.”
He also shared that the company has coordinated with local emergency management to ensure safety for the facility and its surrounding areas.
Looking ahead, Housekeeper gave an update on the company’s progress toward turning the test reactor on by July 4. “Great,” he said, before further elaborating,” we’ve got a thousand races that we’re running, and any one of those that trip might take us off the Fourth of July, but miraculously, we continue to run our race.”
“I appreciate very much coming out here,” expressed Mayor Danny Van Wagoner. “It’s exciting, I’ve been out there, and it’s still exciting to listen to these videos. Thank you and your team very much.”