NASA calls for nuclear power plant on the moon in next decade. Here’s what we know.

• NASA plans to build a nuclear power plant on the moon by the 2030s to support long-term human exploration.
• The project aims to address power needs during lunar nights and provide high-power energy for lunar and Mars surfaces.
• This initiative is prioritized due to similar pursuits by China and Russia, raising national security concerns.

NASA wants to put a nuclear power plant on the moon in the next decade and eventually Mars.

Signed by the current Acting Administrator Sean Duffy, NASA Headquarters released a plan that calls for creating a new position, the Fission Surface Power Program Executive, who would oversee this effort, working to award contracts within the next eight months to up to two industry providers to push forward this effort.

“If you were to have a bumper sticker that said ‘nuclear on the moon soon’, that would be the right idea,” Retired U.S. Air Force Major General John M. Olson told FLORIDA TODAY.

It’s part of an overall White House initiative known as “Deploying Advanced Nuclear Reactor Technologies for National Security.” The goal: “to support a future lunar economy, high power energy generation on Mars, and to strengthen our national security in space.”

And it calls for a quick response, noting that Russia and China have similar plans.

“Since March 2024, China and Russia have announced on at least three occasions a joint effort to place a reactor on the Moon by the mid-2030s,” the NASA document, dated July 31, reads. “The first country to do so could potentially declare a keep-out zone which would significantly inhibit the United States from establishing a planned Artemis presence if not there first.”

Why does NASA want a nuclear reactor on the moon and Mars

“Fission surface power” is what NASA is calling its aim.

The NASA document states that lunar nuclear power is needed for two areas of crewed missions where currently technology falls short. Those shortfalls are “to enable systems to survive and operate through the lunar night” and “to provide a source of high-power energy generation for the Moon and Mars surfaces.”

Basically, to sustain human explorers and the technology needed for exploration and science.

“The lunar night is two weeks. It’s basically two weeks of light, two weeks of darkness. It’s cold and dark, so solar doesn’t work in all the regions that are of interest to explore,” said Olson, who is the CEO and Chairman of Axions Corperation.

NASA’s Artemis program is the agency’s plan to return to the moon after more than 50 years, this time to stay and continue human exploration. The area of interest is the moon’s south pole, which shows promise of water ice — which can be used as a resource.

From the moon, NASA plans to eventually send astronauts to Mars.

In order for this long term mission to be attainable, the amount of power needed on the surface for technology and human life support systems comes to at least 100KWe (kilowatts), NASA said.

When does NASA plan to put a nuclear reactor on the moon?

The document outlines a call for this technology to be ready to launch by the first quarter of 2030.

Turns out, NASA has been investing in this technology since 2000. According to the document, the space agency poured $200 million into studying the technology but had not come up with anything ready for use.

Now President Trump’s budget request for 2026 includes Mars technology as a priority, designating $350 million − followed by $500 million − towards the initiative of getting Amercian astronauts to Mars.

To do this, NASA has to make cuts elsewhere. Among those cuts: NASA plans to fly its vastly overbudget Space Launch System (SLS) rocket through the Artemis V mission but then turn to the private space sector and drop SLS.

The timeline looks like this: return astronauts to the lunar surface as soon as 2027, when the Artemis III crew gets off the ground. This date depends on the readiness of multiple items: the SLS rocket, Orion spacecraft, and SpaceX’s Starship human lander.

The success of Artemis II, which will fly around the moon no earlier than February 2026, also will be a factor. And to date, SpaceX’s Starship has yet to achieve orbit − the last few test flights out of Texas ending in the loss of the ship.

What happens next in the NASA nuclear plan?

Within the next month, the associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate will assign a Fission Surface Power Program Executive. According to the document, this official will see through the efforts of the Fission Surface Power Program.

In the next 60 days, NASA will begin looking for commercial providers who can assist with the creation of the nuclear power plant.

Olson believes it’s the right answer not only to maintain U.S. leadership in space, but also to empower commercial industries.

“It’s vitally important for the benefits of Earth in terms of continuing to leverage the advancements of nuclear power,” said Olson. “Safe and very viable nuclear power.”

Why the rush? China and Russia have moon goals, too

The U.S. isn’t the only country eyeing the moon and beyond.

Both China and Russia are looking toward the moon as an exploration target for its astronauts. And both have mentioned establishing a nuclear power reactor on the moon.

Why would NASA care if those countries wanted to explore a place America first visited more than 50 years ago?

The fear is one which has plagued nations throughout history. Whoever is first could claim the area of the moon for their own use − prohibiting other nations from entering. Should this be where the Artemis missions are planning to land, it could cause disrupt NASA.

“The US has always used space as sort of what we could call the ultimate high ground, making sure the U.S. is dominate in space, and you can’t be dominant in space if another country is building bases on the moon,” Don Platt, associate professor of space systems at Florida Tech, previously told FLORIDA TODAY.

The possibility is real, as China has been making quick progress in the area of human space exploration. The country already has a space station which rivals the International Space Station and the Chinese public appear deeply engaged in their nation’s efforts around space exploration. In recent years, videos of excited crowds in China cheering on their country’s space program have circulated on the internet.

Is a nuclear reactor on the moon safe?

There’s not a lot of details in this plan. But NASA says they are taking the risks seriously in choosing the system to use

“A closed Brayton cycle power conversion system to reduce risk and ensure extensibility to higher power systems,” the NASA document calls for.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, a nuclear power plant creates electricity from the heat in a process known as fission. Put simply, fission is the splitting of atoms in a nuclear reactor − which results in the heat needed for power.

On Earth, this process uses uranium, a metal element found in rocks.

The Environmental Protection Agency states that 20% of the power generated in the U.S. comes from nuclear power plants.

Is this the first time nuclear material has been used in space?

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No, it’s been done before, most recently during the Mars 2020 mission, which sent a rover to the red planet. The rover, which arrived on Mars in 2021, carried radioactive material to power itself.

It carried 10.6 pounds of plutonium dioxide to produce electricity and warm its internal systems during the harsh nights on Mars.

“The main type of plutonium used in a radioisotope power system, plutonium-238, is different from the material used for nuclear weapons, and it cannot explode like a bomb,” a NASA document on the Mars 2020 mission said at the time.

NASA advised that the risk of the material leaking was low, and the chance of anyone being harmed was extremely low.

“In the past there’s been fears or concerns related to nuclear enterprise,” said Olson. “Some of our most amazing discoveries and exploration activities in space have been leveraging nuclear power sources.”

This also includes sending spacecrafts even beyond our solar system, such as the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecrafts.

Brooke Edwards is a Space Reporter for Florida Today. Contact her at bedwards@floridatoday.com or on X: @brookeofstars.