US, China and Russia race to put nuclear reactors on the Moon by 2030s

NASA has put out a call to contractors to build a small nuclear reactor capable of surviving a rocket launch and running itself for five years near the Moon's south pole. The target: a December 2030 deployment. The urgency behind that timeline has as much to do with geopolitics as engineering — NASA is worried that a Chinese-Russian reactor, if it lands first, could establish an exclusion zone that limits where American rovers and astronauts are allowed to go.

The United States, China and Russia are all pursuing plans to put nuclear fission reactors on the Moon, according to reporting by The New York Times. The competition is driven by a hard physical reality: solar panels and radioisotope heating systems can sustain early operations, but they cannot reliably power a permanent lunar base through the Moon's nights, which last more than two Earth weeks. Temperatures swing from roughly -334°F to 130°F. Nuclear fission offers continuous electricity regardless of sunlight — for habitats, rovers, resource extraction and, eventually, missions deeper into the solar system.

NASA's proposed Lunar Reactor 1 is designed to produce 20 kilowatts of electricity and operate autonomously for five years without maintenance. Russia and China, through what has been described as a secretive partnership, are developing the 'Selena' reactor, which is designed to generate up to 10 kilowatts of autonomous power for up to 10 years to support Chinese-led lunar stations, with a target deployment date of 2036.

Both the American and Russian programs plan to launch their reactors in an inactive state to reduce the risk of a catastrophic accident during launch. A rocket failure carrying an active reactor could disperse radioactive material — a scenario engineers on both sides are designing around. Building heavy containment structures comparable to those used in Earth-based nuclear plants is not considered feasible on the lunar surface, which means physical exclusion zones around any reactor will likely be necessary to protect astronauts and sensitive equipment from radiation.

Those exclusion zones sit at the center of a legal dispute that has no clear resolution. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty prohibits any nation from claiming territory on the Moon. But the treaty does not explicitly address whether a country can restrict access to a safety perimeter around its own infrastructure, or assert ownership over resources — such as water ice — extracted from the lunar surface. Space law experts have said safety perimeters may conflict with the treaty's guarantee of free access to space.

The south pole is the focal point of this competition because of its water ice deposits, which could be converted into drinking water, oxygen and rocket propellant. Both NASA's Artemis program and the China-Russia International Lunar Research Station are targeting that region. A reactor planted there — surrounded by a legally ambiguous keep-out zone — could, in practice, shape who gets access to the most valuable real estate on the Moon, regardless of what any treaty says.

For now, all three programs remain in the planning and contracting phase. NASA's 2030 deadline is the most aggressive, and it was reportedly accelerated specifically in response to the Sino-Russian timeline. Whether any of these reactors launches on schedule will depend on engineering, funding and political will — but the legal and territorial questions they raise will not wait for the hardware to arrive.

Why it matters — Whoever plants a nuclear reactor near the Moon's south pole first may, in practice, shape access to the region's water ice and other resources for all future missions — and existing space law offers no clear answer on how to resolve that.

Reported by nytimes.com, tbsnews.net, reuters.com, en.fnnews.com, archive.md, moneycontrol.com, washingtonpost.com