Successful Space Launch Sets the Stage for Moon Nuclear

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THE TOP FIVE

1. Artemis II rockets to the moon, advancing America’s plans for a lunar nuclear plant

At 6:35 p.m. ET last night, I watched my daughter reach her hand up at the image on our television of one of the most powerful rockets the United States has ever launched, carrying America’s first lunar crew in half a century. Looking at her stare up in wonder, I prayed that the greatest achievements of our civilization lie ahead of us, forged not of zero-sum contests between adversaries but peaceful competition among rivals. Parenthood makes it difficult not to think in such dramatic terms. But there’s the fact, too, that this successful launch puts us one step closer to something extraordinary: A nuclear power plant on the moon. As I told you back in January, the Department of Energy set a goal of installing a nuclear reactor on the moon in the next four years. The mission will slingshot the crew of four astronauts — commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen — around the moon and back to Earth. The subsequent two U.S. launches — Artemis IV and V, which are scheduled for 2028 — will bring crews to the lunar surface. “This time, the goal is not flags and footprints,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said last week, according to E&E News. “This time, the goal is to stay.” NASA aims to have a nuclear reactor ready to make the journey to the moon by the end of the decade.

One of the country’s leading next-generation nuclear developers is also stepping up its ambition. Executives from TerraPower, the Bill Gates-backed sodium reactor startup, held talks with the utility Evergy about a potential power plant in Kansas this week. “We’re not ready to announce any sites. Multiple communities in Kansas have kind of raised their hand and said they’re willing to host a Natrium power plant,” TerraPower CEO Chris Levesque told Fox4 Kansas City.

2. Japan is encouraging companies to invest in overseas LNG

Japan is turning its nuclear reactors back on, looking at building wind turbines, and relaxing rules on coal-fired stations to bolster its electricity supply as the Iran War halts the flow of liquified natural gas through the Strait of Hormuz. But the country invested a lot in LNG infrastructure as the fuel replaced atomic energy following the shutdowns triggered by the 2011 Fukushima disaster. So it’s also looking for new supplies. The Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security, a government-owned investor, launched a new initiative Wednesday to offer a return on LNG investments. The industry is already abuzz. In just the past week, at least two Japanese companies have made big LNG investments.

On Wednesday night, three hours after the rocket launch, President Donald Trump gave a televised speech highlighting what he described as U.S. achievements in the Iran War and setting the stage for the conflict to wind down. But he offered no specific timelines, and oil prices rose steadily throughout the speech.

3. U.S. coal exports shrank as crude production hit a record

King Coal, a short king? EIA

U.S. coal exports fell in 2025 for the first time in four years as overseas sales of thermal coal dropped by 18% and metallurgical coal by 11%. If you thought this could be a sign of Trump’s coal revival taking hold, think again. The plunge, according to the Energy Information Administration’s latest report, “largely reflects a 92% decrease in exports to China in 2025 compared with 2024, after China imposed a 15% additional tariff on imports of U.S. coal in February of last year and 34% reciprocal tariff on imports from the United States in April.”

A crude wave.EIA

U.S. production of crude, on the other hand, surged by 3%, or 350,000 barrels per day, in 2025. That set a new annual record of 13.6 million barrels per day, the EIA found in a separate analysis. If that’s “drill, baby, drill” in action, then the catchphrase deserves an asterisk indicating that the drilling is taking place in the same locations as before. The number of active rigs per month in the lower 48 states was 5% less than in 2024, and 1% fewer wells were drilled. But efficiency improvements at existing wells resulted in an increase of crude.

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4. Energy Department’s watchdog report criticizes agency’s handling of failed NuScale project

In November 2023, the nation’s leading effort to deploy new small modular reactors, developer NuScale’s project supplying electricity to the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, collapsed as inflation sent costs soaring. Oregon-based NuScale, as I have reported for Heatmap, has struggled to make major progress since. Now a report released this week by the Energy Department’s inspector general has determined that the Office of Nuclear Energy “did not effectively manage the project.” In total, the project wasted about $183 million in federal funding “without key results,” including $143.5 million that the Office of Nuclear Energy gave to NuScale up front without any serious oversight or conditions.

5. Green ammonia is now cheaper than the gray kind in Asia

Last month, I told you about GE Vernova and the Japanese company IHI running tests to see whether a gas turbine could run on ammonia, the green version of which is made without producing carbon emissions. If that could work, green ammonia could offer a way to eliminate emissions from gas plants without rendering relatively new turbines suddenly worthless. But green ammonia has traditionally cost much more than the natural gas-based gray ammonia. Not anymore, at least not in Asia. The price of green ammonia is now cheaper than that of gray ammonia due to the ongoing conflict in Iran, Hydrogen Insight reported.

THE KICKER

How’s this for a cursed AI prompt: Remake Frank Sinatra’s “The Coffee Song” but make it about rare earths. The U.S. just secured a deal with Brazil to give $565 million in a loan from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation to produce rare earths at Serra Verde’s mine. The move comes right after the U.S. managed to snatch up one of the few Congolese cobalt miners that China didn’t already control.