NASA head Sean Duffy makes plans for moon-based nuclear energy source: 'It's about winning the second space race'

Interim NASA administrator Sean Duffy is slated to announce this week that the Trump administration has plans to put a nuclear reactor on the moon. Duffy also serves as the Secretary of Transportation.

NASA has previously considered putting a nuclear reactor on the surface of the moon, however the plans expected from Duffy will set a more concrete timeline for when the project will be launched, according to documents obtained by Politico. NASA has been facing budget cuts in other areas, but the White House has increased funding for manned space missions for 2026.

“It is about winning the second space race,” a NASA official told the outlet. Trump named Duffy as the interim NASA administrator after he pulled the nomination for Jared Isaacman, who is also a friend to Elon Musk. The move came as the president and Musk were in a public spat over the "One Big Beautiful Bill" backed by Trump.

Duffy has also moved to more quickly replace the International Space Station (ISS), another objective of the space agency. Both efforts will be vital to get the US to the moon again as well as to Mars, something that the Chinese are working on, along with the AI race.

The directive for the projects lays out a proposal to get a 100-kilowatt nuclear reactor launched by 2030, two years after the end of Trump's second term in office. If there is a different country that achieves the feat first, the nation could "declare a keep-out zone which would significantly inhibit the United States," the plans state, as there are signs of concern that China or Russia will attempt a similar project.

China intends to send their first astronaut to the moon by 2030 as well. As for the ISS, NASA plans to change how contracts are awarded to replace the old, leaky space craft and put a new station up by 2030. Multiple companies are attempting to score the contract to replace the ISS, including Axiom Space, Vast, and Blue Origin.

SpaceX, Elon Musk's space company, has already secured an $843 million contract to build "a souped-up version of its cargo Dragon spacecraft to drive the International Space Station out of orbit for a controlled re-entry and breakup over an uninhabited stretch of ocean when the lab is finally retired in the 2030 timeframe," reports Space Flight Now.