The world powers are working to establish a lunar base and a nuclear reactor on the lunar soil • The US is trying to speed up its target date to bypass the cooperation of China and Russia • Along with the plans, experts fear failures that may cause dangerous damage to the population
The United States, China and Russia, in a race to build the first nuclear reactor to be built on the moon. The race to space that took place between the United States and the Soviet power lasted for decades, and now the American space agency, NASA, is working vigorously to be ready to launch the reactor it will open into space as early as December 2030. This is in response to the schedule of China and Russia, who are working together on the project and mark 2036 as their target year.
For the nuclear reactor, which the powers want to build on the moon, there are several goals with which they can continue to explore space in a better and more convenient way. First, the countries want to be the first to reach this achievement and even establish a lunar base next to it. In addition, they intend to locate resources such as frozen ice and launch new missions at farther ranges in the solar system.
Russia is the leader in the field, but NASA is closing the gap
Sources that include studies, technical specifications and interviews with industry officials, explain the way the countries work to achieve the goal, and the cooperation of China and Russia. Thus, it is explained that nuclear energy is the main field in which Russia will focus. This is against the background of its rich experience in the field, greater than that of any other country.
Russia launched more than 30 reactors into space, most of them in the 1970s and 1980s during the Cold War. In addition, it is considered a leader in the field of civil nuclear energy and holds the largest stockpile of uranium that is not highly enriched – a fuel considered the safest for these space missions. The United States, on the other hand, is in a shortage of this material.
The last time NASA launched a reactor into space was in 1965, but it was shut down after a failure occurred in another spacecraft that was not related to the reactor at all. Since then, the United States has invested more than $20 billion in nuclear programs destined for space, but they have not materialized into launching another reactor.
A nuclear reactor next to the first lunar base
A lunar base, such as the one that the United States and China aspire to establish, requires more energy than can be produced by the means currently in space, and for that a reactor will be required to be placed on the moon. The reactor will face the long lunar nights, each of which lasts two whole weeks. In addition, it will be required to withstand temperatures of about 55 to about 203 degrees Celsius.
The authorities of Russia are working to produce a lunar reactor called Selina that will provide the Chinese bases with the energy they need and will be ready by 2036. It will generate electricity with a power of 10 kilowatts and operate autonomously for a decade.
NASA, on the other hand, accelerated the production of Lunar Reactor 1, which will generate electricity with a power of 20 kilowatts and operate autonomously for five years. It plans to use nuclear energy as early as 2028 to propel a spacecraft to Mars and thus be the first to do so. At the same time, the White House announced that the Pentagon intends to develop its own space reactors and place them around the Earth.
Experts on the subject predict that the target dates set by the superpowers will be delayed, this is because none of them has so far demonstrated the ability to land such a heavy radioactive payload on a disturbed surface like that of the moon. In addition, a reactor with such a low gravity has never been installed.
The many concerns alongside the plans
The countries have made it clear that they intend to activate the nuclear reactors only after landing on the moon, but various scientists warn that the governments are acting too quickly and there may be cases where the plans go wrong and a widespread danger is created.
One of the cases is a launch failure and the reactor crashing into the ocean, which will cause a chain reaction that will eventually release dangerous radiation. Nuclear experts claim that such a case occurred in Russia in 2019 and as a result at least five people were killed.
Another case is a malfunction that would cause the reactor to return to Israel, as happened in 1978, when Cosmos 954, a Russian nuclear-powered satellite, hit northern Canada and scattered a lot of radioactive material.
In the United States they claim that each reactor will be inspected by experts from seven different agencies, but accidents can always happen. In addition, in space even small accidents can produce a lot of radioactive fallout due to the little gravity found there. Also, when a nuclear reactor goes out of use on Earth, it is dismantled in a careful procedure that lasts several years. On the other hand, NASA and Russia have announced that they will leave the reactor as it is on the moon at the end of its use.
Fuel available but dangerous or safe but rare?
Alongside all this, the question arises as to what type of fuel will be used for the nuclear reactors. NASA has announced that it will use nuclear fuel that is not highly enriched – a fuel that is considered safer. However, highly enriched uranium is easier and cheaper to launch than other fuels. Additionally, in the last experiment that NASA performed in 2018, it used highly enriched uranium.
Russia and China have not disclosed the type of fuel they will use, but in Russia’s older space reactors, the country used highly enriched fuel. The Trump administration has warned against using this type of fuel because it can be turned into a nuclear weapon.