  A hallmark of many unconventional superconductors is the presence of
many-body interactions which give rise to broken symmetry states intertwined
with superconductivity. Recent resonant soft x-ray scattering experiments
report commensurate $3a_0$ charge density wave order in the infinite layer
nickelates, which has important implications regarding the universal interplay
between charge order and superconductivity in both the cuprates and nickelates.
Here, we present x-ray scattering and spectroscopy measurements on a series of
NdNiO$_{2+x}$ samples which reveal that the signatures of charge density wave
order are absent in fully reduced, single-phase NdNiO$_2$. The $3a_0$
superlattice peak instead originates from a partially reduced impurity phase
where excess apical oxygens form ordered rows with 3 unit cell periodicity. The
absence of any observable charge density wave order in NdNiO$_2$ highlights a
crucial difference between the phase diagrams of the cuprate and nickelate
superconductors.
