{"id":173234,"date":"2025-12-08T06:28:24","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T06:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/173234\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T06:28:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T06:28:24","slug":"nasa-to-build-nuclear-reactor-on-moon-by-2030-report-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/173234\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA to build nuclear reactor on moon by 2030, report states"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even with the Trump administration slashing NASA\u2019s budget and workforce<\/a>, the space agency is moving ahead with a bold plan to build a nuclear reactor on the moon, according to Politico<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The report states that Transportation Secretary\/Interim NASA Administrator Sean Duffy will soon announce the effort, with a goal of opening the 100-kilowatt nuclear reactor by 2030. Much of the urgency appears tied to competition from China and Russia. China plans to send astronauts to the moon in 2030, and both China and Russia have discussed a joint operation to build a nuclear reactor on the lunar surface.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO:
\n
\n NASA’s carbon tracking satellites are on Trump’s chopping block<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

NASA believes that another nation winning the nuclear race on the moon could inhibit the U.S.\u2019s own lunar ambitions. With lunar night lasting two weeks at a time, nuclear power would be an alternative to solar<\/a>, powering permanent or semi-permanent lunar bases and missions. Additionally, some of the moon lies in permanent shadow, making solar-powered missions more complicated in those areas. Nuclear power would open up much more of the moon to humans, according to NASA.<\/p>\n

\n Mashable Light Speed\n <\/p>\n

How the reactor would be built remains an open question, though Newsweek suggests the power generator could use uranium fuel and be buried<\/a> under the lunar surface to shield astronauts from radiation.<\/p>\n

NASA also has plans to replace the aging International Space Station<\/a> by 2030, possibly with the help of corporate entities like Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin<\/a>. The ISS is likely to be decommissioned and crashed into the ocean<\/a> by then, and if an ISS replacement is not constructed in time, then China would operate the only permanently crewed space station.<\/p>\n

Under Trump and Duffy, NASA is also prioritizing human spaceflight, including to Mars<\/a>, while deemphasizing scientific efforts<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even with the Trump administration slashing NASA\u2019s budget and workforce, the space agency is moving ahead with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-173234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}