Capt. Winston Scott to Newsmax: 'Need to Move Forward' With Nuclear Power in Moon Race

Winston Scott, a former NASA astronaut and retired U.S. Navy captain, said Friday that the United States needs to "move forward" with its plans to build a nuclear reactor on the moon in the next five years to get ahead of China and Russia's plans for lunar colonization.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who also serves as interim NASA administrator, said Tuesday that the U.S. plans to send astronauts to circle the moon next year as it moves beyond studying and into the "next phase" of space exploration.

"As Secretary Duffy so eloquently said, we do need to go back to the moon," Scott said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "We need to occupy the moon with a permanent human presence, and to do so requires power.

"We need to build habitats there. We've got to have buildings, hospitals, schools and so on, and the abundance of power on the moon is very, very, very, very small. There's no natural gas, there's no coal, there's no oil. The sunlight is limited. So, the best option would be nuclear power. You know, nuclear power has been utilized for decades. It's been done so safely in many parts of the world and also across the United States."

"I think there's an emotional and political reaction to the word nuclear," he continued. "We immediately conjure up images of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. I remind everybody that nuclear power can be used safely and has been used safely all over the world. In fact, as a Navy veteran, I can say that the U.S. Navy has been safely using nuclear power in combat vessels for 60, 70, 80 years. So, it's clean, it's efficient, and it's the best option for permanently occupying the moon. So, I support the secretary. I think we need to move forward with this endeavor."

Building a nuclear reactor on Earth typically takes longer than five years, and Scott acknowledged that building one is space is "going to be a challenge."

"But I remind everybody that every nuclear power plant doesn't have to be the giant-sized ones that we see here on Earth," he said. "You can build smaller, more portable ... nuclear reactors. Everything doesn't have to be giant size. So, it is possible to do a lot of the construction here of the equipment and ship it to the moon, hook it up, so to speak, and begin to deploy it.

"Five years is ambitious, but we do need to get on with this endeavor. It's important that we do so."

Addressing concerns about launching radioactive materials into space, Scott, the current director of operational excellence at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, said that the U.S. has quietly "been using nuclear power on satellites for decades now."

"We have launched satellites into orbit with what we call radioactive thermoelectric generators, or RTG," he said. "They've powered space probes, they've powered rockets. So, we've launched them over and over and over again and we've done so successfully and safely.

"You know, the rocket launch itself is a potential explosion. Look at what happened with the few accidents that we did have, with Challenger, for example. So, we're in a risky business and we're all about managing the risk. Launching nuclear components into orbit ... must be done safely, and it can be done so."

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