“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 said.
He said all the technical questions concerning the project had been solved apart from finding a solution on how to cool the nuclear reactor. “We are indeed working on a space tugboat. This huge, cyclopean structure that would be able, thanks to a nuclear reactor and a high-power turbines…to transport large cargoes from one orbit to another, collect space debris and engage in many other applications,” Borisov said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last month dismissed a warning by the United States that Moscow planned to put nuclear weapons in space as false, saying it was a ploy to draw Russia into arms negotiations on the West’s terms.
It’s kind of a chicken and egg problem though, isn’t it?
They need the power to build significant structures, but you have to build the reactor to generate the power.
There’s been a few proposals to get nuclear power to work on the moon. I don’t know what the Russians are planning, possibly it’s just made up who knows, but but the best solution I’ve heard would be to use ammonia as a coolant instead of water, as it won’t freeze when it’s run through pipes on the surface of the moon.
Of course it does mean launching and not insignificant amount of nuclear material into space on an ongoing basis, unless they mine the moon for uranium, but that’s probably a couple of decades down the line of the earliest.