TOKYO - "Build a nuclear power plant on the Moon." It sounds like something out of a science fiction film but it could soon be reality as the United States is moving in earnest with the aim of making it happen as early as in four years time.
In an executive order late last year, U.S. President Donald Trump set out an ambitious goal of deploying nuclear reactors on the lunar surface and in orbit. The biggest reason the United States is rushing to build a lunar nuclear plant as a matter of national prestige is an intense leadership rivalry with China.
Human history does not stop pushing into the unknown. Rather than being swept up in a power game between major powers, Japan should leave its own mark on space exploration by drawing on strengths unique to the country.
Just as the Apollo program the United States carried out in the 1960s and 1970s thrilled the world, space development in any era carries a grand dream of opening humanity's frontier.
For people to stand on the Moon and use it as a base to aim even farther for Mars, energy is indispensable.
The Moon has no air and a long "night" comes about every 14 days. In a world of darkness in which temperatures can plunge to nearly minus 200 C, large amounts of electricity and heat are essential for humans to survive and keep operating.
Solar panels and batteries are not enough for the harsh lunar night. That is why the plan emerged to install a small nuclear plant on the Moon that can generate vast energy day and night.
Electrolyzing water yields hydrogen and oxygen that can be used for rocket propellant and life support. But water is only found in a small area near the Moon's south pole.
As on Earth, the country that lands first and builds infrastructure will go on to dominate the rules and interests on the lunar surface. That is why the United States is heightening its geopolitical sense of crisis as it should not let China take the initiative on the Moon.
Lunar nuclear plants symbolize the modern age, where the human drive to seek a frontier and power games are intricately intertwined.
China, too, is steadily advancing plans to build a nuclear plant on the Moon in partnership with Russia. Humans who have fought on Earth over resources and borders are poised to carry that confrontation into space. Behind this grand project, a cold political struggle for human hegemony casts a shadow beyond pure dreams and curiosity.
How should Japan respond to this massive tide? It, too, has begun trying to get involved in this plan through measures such as supporting technology development and launching specialized companies.
Japan has more than half a century of accumulated nuclear technology, as well as safety and applied technologies strengthened through the lessons of the 2011 accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
By applying these strengths to the lunar nuclear plant plan, it is expected that Japan can contribute to making it a reality while also enhancing its presence.
(Naoyuki Takaki, born in 1963, has served as a professor at Tokyo City University since 2012 specializing in reactor physics. He was also a professor at Tokai University after leaving TEPCO in 2008.)
