“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity.”
Nov 14, 2025
Today’s Nuclear Related Image . . .
Concept art of a fission surface power system on the surface of the moon. (Image: Lockheed Martin)
LLAW’s All Things Nuclear Review Today . . .
A small nuclear reactor on the moon might be a good idea for long-term astronomical scientific human visits providing oxygen, housing, and a space observatory for better telescopic exploration of space along with the ability to accomplish geological study of the moon’s surface.
But it should be a moon-base for us all. Why is there a race, as today’s feature article indicates, among individual countries USA, Russia, China, and others to be the FIRST country to make it happen. This makes me think of “War” — and the first one there dominates the purposes and rewards, and even “ownership” — as well as thinking “space wars” — not against unknown alien invasions, but among ourselves — just like here on Earth.
It seems to me that such a program and its efforts to construct and the rewards should be an international alliance among nations and certainly not used as some kind of “race” to see which country can be the first.
When will we ever learn that the only way “All Things Nuclear” can survive, along with humanity and other life, is to get rid of it, or otherwise use it for international peace and welfare. Weighing human greed, I doubt such a global unity will ever happen. ~llaw
. . . Oh, and by the way, there is a novel, written by noted science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson titled “Red Moon” that relates the trials and tribulations of an inhabited moon . . . (See Today’s Featured Story from LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD TODAY in the full blog post for more from the book’s cover image . . . )
Today’s Featured Story from LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD TODAY is from category. . .
Nuclear Power
NEWS
Latest Issue — Nov 2025
The race to put a nuclear reactor on the moon
4h agoANS Nuclear Cafe
Concept art of a fission surface power system on the surface of the moon. (Image: Lockheed Martin)
The “space race” is once again making headlines, with technology worthy of the 21st century. Like the Cold War–era competition, this race too is about showcasing power—but this time it’s nuclear power.
A new article in Power Technology examines the competing efforts of the United States, Russia, and China as they strive to be the first to put a nuclear reactor on the moon to power a lunar base, detailing the technical challenges and international rivalries.
NASA, Roscosmos, and CNSA: Current NASA plans envision a fission reactor on the lunar surface that would provide at least 100 kilowatts of electrical power as well as heat for a base camp for the crews of the lunar-landing Artemis missions.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Roscosmos is working with the China National Space Administration to deploy a reactor to power their planned Lunar Research Station.
U.S. officials hope to accomplish the U.S. goal by 2030—five years in front of the stated goal of the Russia-China collaboration.
Previous technology: The Power Technology article goes on to explain the various limitations of radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs), fuel cells, and solar cells, which have previously been used for powering lunar spacecraft and other space missions. The limitations for these three systems include, respectively, scaling difficulties, the need for fuel replenishment, and the inability to function at the dark south pole of the moon (which is of interest because of its water ice). Therefore, “nuclear fission has emerged as the most viable, durable solution” for a crewed moon base, the article states.
Many challenges: According to the Department of Energy, the present idea is to transport a fully constructed fission reactor to the moon via rocket. This mode of transport will place size and weight limitations on the reactor introduces challenges of landing, activating, and operating it in the unusual environment of the moon.
Lacking air and convection, the lunar environment will affect the reactor’s efficiency. NASA is planning to use a closed Brayton cycle system for waste heat rejection and power conversion. However, getting rid of the waste heat is “a significant engineering hurdle” without air, the article notes. Heat rejection and thermal management constitute one of the key problems that is being worked on by Lockheed Martin, which has a contract through Idaho National Laboratory to develop lunar reactor designs. X-energy and Westinghouse also have lunar reactor contracts.
The other unique technical challenges for a functioning lunar nuclear reactor involve low gravity, high cosmic radiation, no atmosphere, frequent impacts of small meteorites, abrasive dust, and extreme temperatures. In addition, any reactor on the moon will have to keep functioning with only minimal maintenance from astronauts. No nuclear reactor on Earth has had to face such novel difficulties, so these represent significant new technical hurdles for reactor designers.
Ambitious but achievable: An unnamed DOE spokesperson is quoted in the article as saying that “2030 is an ambitious but achievable goal. A nuclear reactor on the moon will enable discovery and economic opportunities by providing robust power for research and industrial operations in a harsh environment.”
Russia and China are also optimistic about their lunar reactor plans. Mohammed Ziauddin, an analyst at GlobalData (the parent company of Power Technology), is quoted in the article, observing that “Russia uses older but reliable technology, while China uses newer but untested technology; I think this combination can be successful, but the U.S. can still outpace them with the right attitude and, more importantly, with the right budget.”
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TODAY’s LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS
About Today’s Nuclear News and How it Works:
There are 7 categories, including a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcano and caldera activity around the world that also play an important role in the survival of human and other life.
The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). If there was no news from a Category today, the Category will not appear. The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
- All Things Nuclear
- Nuclear Power
- Nuclear Power Emergencies
- Nuclear War Threats
- Nuclear War
- Yellowstone Caldera
- IAEA News (Friday’s only)
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
Nuclear World News for Friday, (11/14/2025)
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The race to put a nuclear reactor on the moon
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US expert warns Europe about Russia: “Limited nuclear war is not impossible”
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Russia continues to use nuclear threats in its war against Ukraine, China is expanding its arsenal at high speed, and the United States is …
Exclusive: Department of Energy officials to meet with White House to tamp down Trump’s …
CNN
… War” to “start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis.” … There is no need for weapons testing, as the US still has a lot of “really good data” …
What Are the Consequences of Resuming Nuclear Testing? – Yale Insights
Yale Insights – Yale University
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These are often clearly active volcanic systems that haven’t erupted in the Holocene. The Yellowstone Caldera, for example, has moving magma …
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… caldera, and Ijen. Yellowstone quakes · Yellowstone quakes · Latest earthquakes under Yellowstone volcano. List and interactive map of current and …
Weekly Roundup of News from iaea.org
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