Energy & Environment

Energy & Environment

The Big Story

Trump administration eyes nuclear power on the moon

Transportation Secretary and interim NASA Administrator Sean Duffy outlined on Tuesday the space agency’s plan to build a nuclear reactor on the moon.

© Greg Nash

“We’re in a race to the moon, in a race with China to the moon. And to have a base on the moon, we need energy. And some of the key locations on the moon, we’re going to get solar power, but this fission technology is critically important, and so we’ve spent hundreds of million [of] dollars studying,” Duffy said during a Department of Transportation (DOT) press conference.

“Can we do it? We are now going to move beyond studying, and we are going to be given direction to go,” Duffy added. “Let’s start to deploy our technology to move to actually make this a reality.”

Fission refers to the practice of splitting atoms apart to create nuclear power.

Duffy said that the reactor will have to generate 100 kilowatts of output.

“That’s the same amount of energy a 2,000-square-foot home uses every three and a half days. So we’re not talking about massive technology,” he stated. “We’re not launching this live.”

A memo recently issued by Duffy and shared with The Hill on Tuesday outlines further details of the effort to use nuclear energy technology.
The memo says that the administration will designate a “Fission Surface Power Program Executive” who will be responsible for executing the program.
In addition, it will issue a request for the industry to submit proposals to be part of the program. It plans to award contracts to up to two companies with the goal of being ready to launch by the first quarter of fiscal year 2030.

Read more here, from The Hill's Filip Timotija.

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Source: The Hill - News