Nuclear Power Plant On Moon Needs To Be Among Russia's Space Priorities, Says Putin

Nuclear Power Plant On Moon: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday underlined the importance of Russia prioritising its projects in the space domain, including the one that proposes the establishment of a nuclear power plant on the Moon, Russian state news agency TASS reported.

Russia "has good competencies and, moreover, even has such reserves that we can be proud of, which we can count on in the future", Putin said at a meeting with members of the government, pointing as an example to a nuclear power unit that would operate in space.

"We need to finance it on time," he was quoted as saying by TASS. "We just need to set priorities," Putin said, adding that "there are issues there that require additional attention".

"It seems that we are all used to the fact that we have such competencies that other countries do not possess, but we need to pay special attention to them so that they develop and can be used in the future to solve those tasks that can and should be solved with the help of these technologies," he said further.

Last week, Yuri Borisov, the head of Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, said that Russia and China are mulling the establishment of a lunar nuclear power plant, adding that the move could act as the precursor to lunar settlements. 

Borisov, a former deputy defence minister, said that Russia and China had been jointly working on a lunar programme and that Moscow was able to contribute with its expertise on "nuclear space energy".

"Today we are seriously considering a project - somewhere at the turn of 2033-2035 - to deliver and install a power unit on the lunar surface together with our Chinese colleagues," Borisov had said.

In February, sources cited by US media giant CNN said that Moscow is in the process of developing a nuclear space weapon capable of severely damaging a wide range of commercial and government satellites.

Referred to as a nuclear electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapon by military-space experts, it is being said that the equipment will be capable of emitting a burst of electromagnetic energy and a stream of highly charged particles, potentially disrupting satellites orbiting the Earth.

While this weapon is still being developed and has not been deployed into orbit, officials from the administration of US President Joe Biden have emphasised that its use would mark a perilous shift in nuclear weaponry history. The weapon's potential impact on everyday life is uncertain but could result in significant disruptions, CNN said in its report.

(With inputs from agencies)