US Plans Nuclear Reactor on the Moon—Here’s What to Know

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been tasked with adding nuclear power to its future lunar base by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

“We’re able to build a base,” Duffy, NASA’s acting administrator, told members of the press on Aug. 5. ”But this is critically important. There’s a certain part of the moon that everyone knows is the best. We have ice there. We have sunlight there. We want to get there first and claim that for America. And to do this is, this part of the fission technology is critically important to sustain life, because solar won’t do it.”