Nukes on the moon?

月球上的核武器?

Science Quickly

2026-05-20

16 分钟
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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
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  • For Scientific American Science Quickly, I'm Rachel Feltman.

  • Last August, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy,

  • who at the time was also the acting administrator of NASA,

  • announced his intention to see a nuclear reactor placed

  • on the moon by 2030. You don't have to be an expert in nuclear physics

  • or spaceflight to know that his plan is, shall we say, ambitious.

  • But the idea of popping a nuclear power plant on the lunar surface

  • isn't necessarily the sci-fi disaster movie plotline you might be envisioning.

  • Plenty of experts say it actually makes perfect sense, as long as we take our time.

  • Here to tell us more is Robin George Andrews.

  • He's a volcanologist and science journalist who writes about the Earth, space and planetary sciences.

  • He's also the author of a feature in Scientific American's