Chinese experts have warned against US plans to set up a nuclear power plant on the moon by 2027. The US Space Policy Directive-6 (SPD-6) provides that there should be a surface-fed fission system on the moon that is scalable to a power range of 40 kilowatts of electricity (kWe) and greater.
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SPD-6 considers the US National Strategy for Nuclear Energy and Space Propulsion. A report in the Chinese press says that US ambitions can lead to future monthly military projects, as it seeks space supremacy, regardless of the damage it would cause.
While the US claims that the plant would “support a sustained monthly presence and the exploration of Mars”, China is speculating on military purposes behind the institution.
Chinese military expert Song Zhongping told the state Glabal Times that the moon is rich in helium-3, which can be used to produce energy by nuclear fusion. In the name of building a nuclear power plant that includes the exploitation of nuclear materials, the US could turn the moon into a nuclear weapons production site, he said.
US President Donald Trump has issued SPD-6, which sets out a national strategy for the responsible and efficient use of nuclear and space propulsion systems (SNPPs). It comes at a time when Chang’e-5 in China has successfully completed its monthly mission and returned with monthly tests.
The Chinese expert claims that the signing of the SPD-6 shows the US intention to shoot China in a space race, as it did with the former Soviet Union in the 1980s under Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars” program. It was the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), designed to protect the United States from any attack by strategic ballistic nuclear weapons.
Moreover, US policy of using the SNPP to maintain and advance its dominant position and strategic leadership in space demonstrates “American unilateralism,” said Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations at China’s University of Foreign Affairs.
Li argued that the US plan is against the international consensus on the use of outer space. According to the Treaty of the Moon, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979, the celestial bodies and the Moon “are not subject to national appropriation by the claim of sovereignty, by use or occupation or by any other means.”
The United States generally complied with the rules of the treaty, but never formally joined. Earlier this year, President Trump proposed new rules, in stark contrast to the previous agreement. Called the “Artemis Accord”, it allows the use of monthly resources for commercial gain.
The agreement also focuses on establishing “safety zones” around landing sites, which could be interpreted as de facto ownership of the moon’s zones, which is prohibited by the Outer Space Treaty.
The Outer Space Treaty was largely based on the “Declaration of Legal Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space”. It provides a basic framework for international space law.
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