NASA plans to place a nuclear reactor near the moon’s south pole by December 2030, setting an ambitious timeline for the United States as Russia and China pursue their own lunar power project.

NASA’s Glenn Research Center released draft documentation in late August for Lunar Reactor-1, a 20-kilowatt system designed to operate for five years without maintenance. The reactor would use high-assay low-enriched uranium and provide a steady source of power for future lunar operations.

The U.S. target would put NASA roughly six years ahead of Russia’s current timetable. Moscow has tasked state nuclear company Rosatom and the Kurchatov Institute with developing a reactor known as Selena, which is expected to generate up to 10 kilowatts for as long as a decade. The system is intended to support the China-led International Lunar Research Station.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin have backed the countries’ cooperation on lunar exploration, increasing the strategic competition surrounding the moon. President Donald Trump has also made maintaining U.S. space superiority a priority of his America First agenda.

NASA plans to take an earlier step toward nuclear-powered space operations in December 2028, when it intends to demonstrate fission propulsion aboard Space Reactor-1 Freedom, a spacecraft bound for Mars. The Space Force has separately awarded California-based nuclear microreactor startup Antares a $161 million contract for a nuclear-powered spacecraft as the Pentagon pursues nuclear reactor capabilities in orbit and on the lunar surface.

The accelerated push has raised safety concerns among some nuclear experts. Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, warned that adding nuclear technology to an international space competition could create additional risks.

The proposed U.S. and Russian reactors would remain shut down until reaching the moon, reducing the danger of radioactive contamination if a launch vehicle were to fail. However, the 1978 reentry of a Soviet nuclear-powered satellite scattered radioactive debris across roughly 48,000 square miles of northern Canada, demonstrating the potential consequences of a nuclear-powered spacecraft accident.

R. Scott Kemp, an associate professor of nuclear science and engineering at MIT, said a lunar accident could be more difficult to contain than one on Earth because the moon lacks the heavy containment infrastructure available on Earth.

NASA’s plans call for high-assay low-enriched uranium rather than highly enriched uranium, although supplies of the fuel remain limited. The United States also banned Russian uranium imports in 2024 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Ill., has raised additional concerns about the security implications of nuclear fuel, particularly if more highly enriched material were used.

The competing programs highlight the growing strategic importance of lunar infrastructure as the United States, Russia, and China pursue plans for sustained activity on the moon.