The newfound global desire for nuclear power plants is starting to get a little out of hand. Like, “70s-era James Bond villain” out of hand.
What happened: NASA is fast-tracking plans to build a nuclear reactor on the moon, with the goal of getting one up and running by 2030 to coincide with a new space station. NASA will solicit private companies to build a 100-kilowatt reactor.
Catch-up: You might be tempted to use words like “cockamamie” to describe this news, but if humanity wants to inhabit the moon, nuclear power is the only practical source to power future colonies thanks to its independence from sunlight and constant re-fuelling.
- NASA previously aimed to put a reactor on the moon by 2026 that would use fission surface power, in which split uranium atoms produce heat and, in turn, electricity.
Why it matters: Colonization isn’t happening soon, but the U.S. could be rushing to build a reactor to claim a piece of lunar land. Legally, no one owns the moon, but in establishing a nuclear reactor, a country could declare “a keep-out zone” that would impede other nations.
- “Urgency is the name of the game,” an unnamed senior NASA official told the New York Times. “If we put it too far in the future, we’re not going to achieve it, right?”
Zoom out: Multiple countries have ambitious lunar development plans. China and Russia plan to build their own nuclear energy station on the moon by 2035 to power a future joint base, and the U.K. has contracted Rolls-Royce to develop a lunar reactor by 2029.—QH