New space race: Superpowers look to set up N-reactors on the Moon

US, China and Russia race to secure reliable lunar power as scientists warn of risks from rushing nuclear technology into space

By Selam Gebrekidan

 

In late August, Nasa asked contractors to prepare to build a nuclear reactor that could survive a space voyage and run without maintenance near the moon’s south pole. That may sound like science fiction, but the agency wants it ready to be launched by December 2030. 

There is a reason for the rush. Russia aims to have a lunar reactor running by 2036 as part of a secretive partnership with China. Nasa has already sped up its schedule to beat its rivals. The race is for the very future of space exploration. The US and China want to be first to establish a moon base, to search for resources like frozen water and to launch missions deeper into the solar system. Controlling access to the moon’s assets is vital to this mission. Both superpowers believe a nuclear reactor is the centrepiece of this ambition. 

 

The countries plan to turn on their reactors only after they reach the moon. But some leading scientists caution that governments are moving too quickly in an era of space exploration that has seen some notable disasters. In the last six years, multiple Chinese, American and Russian rockets have failed and exploded, and a Russian lander has crashed into the moon. Space junk regularly tumbles to Earth. 

Failures could cause a chain reaction with dire consequences. Falling reactor debris could scatter radioactive material, as happened in Canada in the late 1970s. An explosion or a meltdown on the moon’s surface would risk turning entire regions into no-go zones. 

“There will always be a space race going on, and if you enter nuclear power into that mix, then it could take a potentially more dangerous turn,” said Edwin Lyman, the director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

A review of technical specifications, procurement documents and academic research, along with interviews with industry insiders, government officials and critics, offers the clearest picture to date of how China, Russia and the US are pursuing this nuclear ambition. 

The records also help explain a key aspect of the Chinese-Russian space partnership, an alliance championed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir V Putin. 

Nuclear power appears to be the only core task that China has delegated to its partner in the lunar project. No country has more experience than Russia in this area. It launched more than 30 reactors into orbit, mostly in the 1970s and 1980s, aboard Cold War-era satellites, and it is a leader in civilian nuclear power. Russia controls the largest supply of what is considered the safest nuclear fuel for space missions. That fuel, uranium that is not highly enriched, is in short supply in the US. 

“Russia has practically no competitors in the field of space nuclear energy,” Mikhail Kovalchuk, the president of Kurchatov Institute, told the Russian news agency TASS. Kurchatov, a research agency, is helping design a lunar reactor. 

Nasa is playing catch-up. The agency launched a reactor in 1965 but shut it down after an unrelated spacecraft failure. The US has spent more than $20 billion on space nuclear programs since then but has never deployed another reactor. 

The race for a lunar reactor is as much a spectacle of power as it is a matter of exploration. US President Donald Trump has declared superiority in space to be part of his “America First” agenda. Xi and Putin have made similar declarations. 

Any permanent base on the moon requires reliable power. Nuclear reactors do not need sunlight to work, and they can be compact. With the right design, they require little human intervention, according to Nasa and the Kurchatov Institute. 

For the first few years, the US and China would need only enough power to keep equipment warm and to charge rovers, vehicles that roam the surface. For that, they plan to use solar power and radioisotope power systems. These systems convert heat from the natural radioactive decay of isotopes into electricity. The US, Russia and China have used the systems in space already. 

Moscow has tasked its state-owned agencies with delivering a lunar reactor, called Selena, by 2036 to power the lunar stations led by China. Selena would generate up to 10 kilowatts of electricity and be able to operate autonomously for a decade.  

Nasa has accelerated its timeline, fearing that a Russian-Chinese reactor could establish a de facto exclusion zone on the moon. Nasa’s Lunar Reactor 1 is expected to produce 20 kilowatts of electricity (roughly the power use of 16 American homes) and work for five years with no intervention.