{"id":9714,"date":"2026-04-15T00:06:47","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T00:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/put-nuclear-reactors-in-space-within-a-few-years-white-house-tells-pentagon\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T00:06:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T00:06:47","slug":"put-nuclear-reactors-in-space-within-a-few-years-white-house-tells-pentagon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/put-nuclear-reactors-in-space-within-a-few-years-white-house-tells-pentagon\/","title":{"rendered":"Put nuclear reactors in space within a few years, White House tells Pentagon"},"content":{"rendered":"
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.<\/strong>\u2014 Launch nuclear reactors to orbit as soon as 2028 and to the Moon as soon as 2030\u2014that\u2019s the White House\u2019s new order to the Pentagon and NASA.<\/p>\n

The six-page policy memo released on Tuesday calls for a dual design competition between the agencies that is to produce a \u201cnearterm demonstration and use of low- to mid-power space reactors in orbit and on the lunar surface.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States will lead the world in developing and deploying space nuclear power for exploration, commerce, and defense,\u201d the policy reads. \u201cAgencies will establish cost-effective partnerships with private-sector innovators to meet near-term objectives that include safely deploying nuclear reactors in orbit as early as 2028 and on the Moon as early as 2030. Achieving these near-term objectives will establish technological viability essential to unlocking space exploration, commerce, and defense applications.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Kratsios, the director of the White House\u2019s science and technology policy office, unveiled the policy at the Space Symposium here. He tied it to President Donald Trump\u2019s December executive order that aimed to \u201censure space superiority\u201d for the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cNuclear 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,\u201d Kratsios said.<\/p>\n

The defense applications for a nuclear reactor are wide-ranging, said Todd Harrison, a space policy and budget expert for the American Enterprise Institute. With a reliable energy source, the military could use it to power some of its most crucial future missions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could run data centers in space, you could use it to power mission-critical systems that can never really go without power, like missile warning, strategic communications, Harrision said. \u201cDirected energy, jamming, data centers, all of those things could use a lot of power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within 90 days, the Pentagon must brief the White House\u2019s science and technology policy office, management and budget office, and National Security Council on \u201crelevant use-cases and payloads\u201d for the systems and \u201cbest use of the 2031 mission,\u201d according to the policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those offices, along with the Defense Department, will decide on the final mission for that technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Earth, the Defense Department has worked for decades to field nuclear microreactors to power its military bases. Last year, the Army announced last year that it aimed to break ground on a microreactor on a U.S. base by 2027. As well, the Pentagon\u2019s Defense Innovation Unit declared eight companies eligible to build those microreactors.<\/p>\n

Last week, the Air Force and Defense Innovation Unit selected Buckley Space Force Base, Colorado, and Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana, as possible locations for two microreactors. There is also a standalone pilot program that will test the operational benefits of a reactor at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska.<\/p>\n

Top U.S. officials have dismissed the fears of groups such as the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, who have pointed out that microreactors on U.S. bases \u201ccould become attractive targets for an adversary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently, there are no nuclear reactors in space and no operational microreactors on Earth within the United States. Harrison said the White House\u2019s timeline for moon-based reactors is ambitious.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe timeline and feasibility strikes me as rather aggressive,\u201d Harrison said. \u201cDemonstrating a microreactor on Earth would be challenging by 2028, doing it in space is even more challenging.\u201d\n\n<\/svg><\/p>\n<\/div>\n