Ever since Sputnik, the first satellite to be launched into outer space, broke free of the earth’s atmosphere in 1956, the advancements in astrophysics, the aerospace industry and our knowledge of the cosmos has rapidly increased a great deal. 2020 saw public announcements by NASA officials confirming that nuclear reactors could be built on the moon and mars by 2026. 

Firstly, it is helpful to understand the general function of a nuclear reactor and how it works. Nuclear reactors are kept in power plants, which use thermal energy from nuclear fission to turn water into steam; this powers a steam turbine that is connected to a generator and produces electricity. The process of nuclear fission is where the nucleus of an atom is split; this generates a lot of thermal energy or heat. There are 440 operable nuclear reactors worldwide and as of January 1, 2020 the US has 96. According to the international energy statistics by the U.S energy information administration 16 April 2020, the U.S produced 99.6 million kilowatts of nuclear electricity in 2017. To help you visualize this the average UK household uses 3,700 kW per year, so it would take approximately 27,000 years for one household to produce what the U.S’s power plants do annually!  

According to Anthony Calomino, the space technology mission directorate at NASA, a fission system that could run for ten years and produce 10 kilowatts of power could be manufactured by 2026. After it is built, it will be transported to the moon using launch vehicles and lunar landers. It will operate for a year before large scale use is implemented or even considered. An interview by CNBC with Calomino states that: “Once the technology is proven through the demonstration, future systems could be scaled up or multiple units could be used together for long-duration missions to the moon and eventually Mars”  

If this demonstration is successful, extraterrestrial exploration could become more advanced. The production of electricity on other planets could allow sustained human visitation to take place and make planets such as mars more inhabitable, at least for researchers. It would allow humanity to expand its reach and lead to a new window of opportunities.  

However, there is a lot of skepticism surrounding these possibilities. Namely, the deftness at which disaster can strike at Nuclear power plants. Although the article by CNBC stated that “The facility will be fully manufactured and assembled on Earth, then tested for safety and to make sure it operates correctly”, there is no escaping the horrors that have occurred: the Fukushima Daiichi explosion in Japan, caused by the tsunami and earthquake in March 2011; the Enrico Fermi Unit 1, an infamous meltdown that took place in Michigan, USA 1966 and perhaps the most well-known and catastrophic, Chernobyl. The explosion and fire that destroyed a unit at the power plant in Ukraine resulted in enormous amounts of radiation being released. This caused the displacement of more than 200,000 people and a United Nations Scientific committee report found 134 cases of acute radiation poisoning among first responders, 47 of which passed away as a result.  


So, with both the risks and rewards in mind is building nucleur reactors outside of earth worth it?