White House Wants a Nuclear Reactor Orbiting the Moon by 2028

By Haley Zaremba - Apr 17, 2026

• The White House issued a directive on April 14 ordering NASA, the Pentagon, and the Department of Energy to develop a nuclear fission reactor capable of orbiting the moon, with a launch-ready target of 2028.
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• Nuclear power is considered the only viable energy source for a permanent lunar presence — solar, wind, and hydropower are all ruled out by the moon's environment, including 14-Earth-day-long lunar nights.
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• The U.S. launched a nuclear reactor into orbit in 1965, but space-based nuclear programs were abandoned after radioactive releases. NASA has since spent billions on space nuclear projects that went nowhere — the White House says this time is different.
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The Trump administration has grand plans for “ENSURING AMERICAN SPACE SUPERIORITY.” When NASA sent humans to the moon for the first time this century earlier this month, the organization made it clear that this is just the “opening act” for a new and revitalized era of space exploration. Under the Trump administration, NASA has enormous ambitions, going as far as to plan a permanent base on the moon, which will need never-before-seen energy innovations to maintain a secure source of power. This week, the federal government laid out its plans to achieve it.

The plan is to send a nuclear reactor into space. Last year, Trump issued a plan to install a nuclear reactor on the surface of the moon, but new orders describe a brand new vision. The April 14 plan lays out a mandate for NASA, the Pentagon and the Department of Energy to develop a nuclear system capable of orbiting the moon, and to have it launch-ready as soon as 2028.

To achieve this vision, NASA will partner with various agencies to fast-track mid-power fission reactor designs and surface power variants, which will compete to achieve near-term demonstration of viable models. “The White House’s overall strategy is to conduct parallel and mutually-reinforcing NASA and Department of War (DOW) design competitions to enable near-term demonstration and use of low- to mid-power space reactors in orbit and on the lunar surface, and prepare to deploy high-power reactors in the 2030s,” Interesting Engineering reported this week.

Solving the riddle of generating power in space would be revolutionary for space exploration and expansion, and all of the political and economic power that comes along with it. “With great power competition rising, the ocean floor, Arctic, and lunar surface are becoming the front lines of global security and economic progress — but they remain energy deserts,” says Tyler Bernstein, Chief Executive Officer of a venture-backed nuclear battery startup called Zeno Power.

Nuclear is widely seen as the only feasible solution to bringing energy into space. Lunar days are extremely long, and each lunar night lasts 14 Earth days, meaning solar power is out of the question. There is no wind on the surface of the moon, so wind power is out as well. Nor is there flowing water for hydropower. Fossil fuels are not available on the moon, and bringing them into orbit would be a ludicrous waste of resources. By comparison, nuclear fission powered with high-assay, low-enriched uranium is far and away the best option.

Based on these facts, it should not be surprising that the idea of bringing nuclear power to space is a very old one that has been tried many times before. In fact, the United States launched a nuclear reactor into orbit way back in 1965, and the Soviet Union launched similar projects. However, both the United States and the USSR released radioactive materials into the atmosphere and on Earth as a part of these efforts, and this track of nuclear development was soon abandoned due to growing pushback and a wave of anti-nuclear sentiment.

Of course, nuclear fission technology has changed and advanced considerably since those ill-fated ventures. But NASA has continued to explore space-based nuclear power in the past decades, “spending billions on nuclear power projects that haven’t gone anywhere” according to a recent report from Scientific American.

But a new nuclear era is upon us. Public support for nuclear power is on the rebound, and space-age ambitions have likewise come roaring back in the Oval Office as well as the private sector. And U.S. leadership is outwardly confident that this time around, it will work. “Nuclear power in space will give us the sustained electricity, heating, and propulsion essential to a permanent robotic and eventually human presence on the moon, on Mars, and beyond,” Michael Kratsios, the director of the White House’s science and technology policy office, recently said at the Space Symposium.

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com