In April 2025, China reportedly unveiled plans to build a nuclear power plant on the Moon by 2035. This plant would support its planned international lunar research station. The United States countered in August, when acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy reportedly suggested a US reactor would be operational on the Moon by 2030.

The Trump administration is rolling out plans to put a nuclear reactor on the moon. But that begs the question, who owns the moon?

This is about space exploration. This is about this next phase,” Duffy, interim NASA administrator and ‘The Real World’ alum, said