In April 2025, China reportedly unveiled plans to build a nuclear power plant on the Moon by 2035. This plant would support its planned international lunar research station. The United States countered in August, when acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy reportedly suggested a US reactor would be operational on the Moon by 2030.

NASA has been ordered to solicit industry proposals – required within 60 days – for building a 100 kilowatt nuclear reactor to operate on the moon to be launched by 2030.

This is about space exploration. This is about this next phase,” Duffy, interim NASA administrator and ‘The Real World’ alum, said