White House Launches Plan for a Nuclear Power System on the Moon Elena11/Shutterstock.com email The White House released a directive Wednesday posing high-level policy goals and explicit directions for multiple federal agencies to drive the development of space-based nuclear systems and technologies. Space Policy Directive 6, titled the “National Strategy for Space Nuclear Power and Propulsion” and deemed SPD-6 for short, sets a strategic roadmap for several ambitious aims—including to demonstrate a fission power system on the surface of the moon by the mid- to late- 2020s. Those systems operate by splitting uranium atoms inside nuclear reactors, to generate heat that’s converted to electricity.