Nukes on the moon?

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2026

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of Science Quickly, host Rachel Feltman speaks with science journalist Robin George Andrews about NASA’s push to put a nuclear reactor on the moon. They explore why nuclear power could be key to sustaining long-term lunar missions, what the technical hurdles of operating a reactor in such an extreme environment are and why experts say the agency’s ambitious timeline may be moving too fast. Recommended Reading: Why NASA wants to build a nuclear reactor on the moon NASA needs nuclear power for its moon base. Here’s the White House plan to get it NASA announces nuclear-powered Mars mission by 2028 NASA Commits to Plan to Build a Nuclear Reactor on the Moon by 2030 E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new everyday: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter. Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Sushmita Pathak and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura, with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Some follow the noise.
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0:22.9	Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com. For Scientific American Science Quickly, I'm Rachel Feldman.
0:49.6	Last August, U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, who at the time was also the acting administrator of NASA,
0:57.0	announced his intention to see a nuclear reactor placed on the moon by 2030.
1:03.0	You don't have to be an expert in nuclear physics or spaceflight to know that his plan is, shall we say, ambitious.
1:14.8	But the idea of popping a nuclear power plan on the lunar surface isn't necessarily the sci-fi disaster movie plotline you might be envisioning.
1:20.4	Plenty of experts say it actually makes perfect sense,
1:24.0	as long as we take our time.
1:26.8	Here to tell us more is Robin George Andrews. He's a
1:30.5	volcanologist and science journalist who writes about the Earth, space, and planetary sciences.
1:35.9	He's also the author of a feature in Scientific Americans June 26 issue, all about the dream
1:41.6	of going nuclear on the moon. Thank you so much for coming out to chat today.
1:45.8	Thanks for inviting me.
1:46.7	It's such a weird thing to chat about.
1:49.4	For a layperson, I think there are probably a couple of things that feel weird and
1:54.0	surprising about this.
	...

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