Russia is considering constructing, together with China, a nuclear power plant on the moon, the head of Russia's Roscosmos space agency said on Tuesday.
"Today we are seriously considering the project of delivering and building an energy plant on the surface of the moon, sometime between 2033 and 2035 together with our Chinese colleagues," Yuri Borisov said during an event for young people.
Construction of the plant will not be done by hand but by machines, he said. The technical solutions for this already exist in practice, Borisov said.
The space chief emphasized that Russia is not seeking to station nuclear weapons in space. Russia had always spoken out against this and would maintain this stance, he said.
Recently there was speculation in the United States that Russia wanted to combat satellites with a new type of nuclear weapon.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied this, but the idea has many worried in the US.
Russia and China signed a declaration of intent in 2021 to expand their cooperation in space. That came against the backdrop of increasing tensions between Moscow and the West.
Russia has announced its withdrawal from the ISS space station. The cooperation, which was originally due to end after 2024, is now set to continue at least until 2028.
China has its own programme to explore the moon. The unmanned probe "Chang'e 6" is due to set off for the Earth's satellite as early as May to collect rock samples.
