
America Wants to Put a Nuclear Power Plant on the Moon - bra-ket
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a33468598/america-nuclear-power-plant-reactor-moon-mars/
======
valuearb
“Edwin Lyman, director of Nuclear Power Safety at the Union of Concerned
Scientists, a nonprofit, said his organization is concerned the parameters of
the design and timeline make the most likely reactors those that use highly
enriched uranium, which can be made into weapons. Nations have generally been
attempting to reduce the amount of enriched uranium being produced for that
reason“

The enriched uranium for a handful of deep space reactors has pretty much a
zero chance of being used in weaponry, especially once it’s been launched.

This seems like a trivial proliferation issue when you realize the US still
has thousands of nuclear bombs and continues to make new nuclear weapons.

~~~
Valgrim
If you have the tools to produce enriched uranium for space applications, you
can also use them to produce weapons, in secret.

~~~
valuearb
The US Military already has those tools and already does produce weapons in
secret.

What does that have to do with building high power to mass nuclear plants for
space applications?

------
remram
Referring to "one lab of the US Department of Energy" as "America" is pushing
it a little bit. One of those is a whole continent.

~~~
perl4ever
On the other hand, the USA is not the only United States, so if you're not
going to call it America because that isn't specific enough, then you
shouldn't call it the US either...

------
MurMan
> Nuclear startup NuScale’s modular reactor uses low-enriched uranium, for
> example, but couldn’t meet the requirements for the moon without _some
> modification and further development._

The NuScale reactor has a shipping weight of 700 tons and requires an on-site
concrete pool of cooling water. Sounds like a lot of modification to me.

