Acting NASA chief Sean Duffy to announce plans for building nuclear reactor on the moon
By Victor Nava
Published Aug. 4, 2025, 7:56 p.m. ET
It’s a power move.
The Trump administration aims to accelerate the construction of a nuclear reactor on the moon, Transportation Secretary and acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy wrote in a memo distributed internally on Monday.
The space agency has previously explored the possibility of installing an electricity-generating nuclear reactor on the lunar surface capable of powering a sustained human presence, but Duffy intends to fast-track the project and more than double the reactor’s power output, according to documents obtained by The Post.
“To properly advance this critical technology to be able to support a future lunar economy, high power energy generation on Mars, and to strengthen our national security in space, it is imperative the agency move quickly,” Duffy wrote in the memo.
“It is about winning the second space race,” a NASA senior official told Politico, which first reported on Duffy’s plans.
Duffy’s directive will instruct NASA to seek out proposals for a 100-kilowatt nuclear reactor that would be ready for launch by 2030.
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https://nypost.com/2025/08/04/us-news/acting-nasa-chief-sean-duffy-to-announce-plans-for-building-nuclear-reactor-on-the-moon/
