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.

The Trump administration wants a nuclear reactor on the moon by the end of the decade in a bid to beat Russia and China to colonization.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, the interim NASA administrator, proclaimed that the U.S. needs to ‘get our act together’ when it comes to the ongoing race to the moon and Mars. To do this, Duffy wants the U.