Fusion On The Moon: Nuclear Fusion For High-Power, Semi-Independent Lunar Development

This open access book explores synergies between two of the most ambitious high technology challenges of the twenty-first century―lunar settlement and nuclear fusion energy. Governance arrangements for the Moon are weak, and the world is in a period of intense geopolitical competition. In both the space and fusion sectors, private enterprise is taking the lead where once national laboratories and public sector technology developers were dominant.

This book envisages a scenario whereby energy demand in the lunar economy could be significantly higher, if only supply were able to match to that demand. This book considers such a high-power lunar future. In such a scenario, different things will happen than are expected in more incremental futures. A megawatt-scale lunar scenario is not easily satisfied using renewable solar power and furthermore conventional nuclear energy, based on the physics of fission, has certain drawbacks. However, the less mature technology of fusion shows promise. Imagining fusion on the Moon, as this book does, reveals insights that rather than simply suggesting that lunar fusion will be even harder to achieve than on Earth, it reveals key ways in which Fusion on the Moon could be easier.

Importantly, fusion on the Moon has the potential to link to new neutronic fusion reactions, free of a reliance on hard-to-source tritium. Helium-3, as found on the Moon, could be key to such futures further boosting the prospects for Fusion on the Moon.

This book is written in an accessible style and is designed for students of physics, engineering, the space economy, and innovation. It also suits the needs of experts in one domain―e.g., space, fusion energy―keen to learn more about the challenges and opportunities of the other. It offers a fresh interdisciplinary perspective on how technology, energy, industry, and various commercial scenarios could shape future activity on the Moon.

William Nuttall CPhys FInstP is Professor of Energy Policy and Transformation (part-time) at the University of Bristol, UK. He is also a Non-Resident Fellow of the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines, USA and a Fellow (honorary) of Cambridge Judge Business School. He is an Affiliated Lecturer in Cambridge University Engineering Department and a Fellow of Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge. He holds a PhD in Physics (1993) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, where he was a Fulbright scholar (1987–1988). 

Małgorzata Grzegorczyk-Nuttall is a Lecturer in Marketing and Innovation at the University of Leicester, UK. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Lodz, Poland, and was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Texas at Austin. Her expertise includes technology transfer, commercialisation, and research-industry collaboration. She is the author of Knowledge and Technology Transfer from Research Organisations to Businesses and Marketing in University-Industry Collaborations, two books that reflect her longstanding interest in how science is translated into practice. She is currently focused on the space sector, especially future commercial scenarios for the lunar economy.

Vidar WE Marsh is a physics postgraduate researcher at the University of Bristol with strong computing skills and an interest in data-centric physics research. He came to research from a first class Masters in physics from the University of Bristol. He has experience transferring his scientific and research skills to industry settings. One previous example project involved the LHCb detector alignment codebase at the large European particle physics laboratory, CERN.

Chris Spedding is a Research Associate at the Leverhulme Centre for Humanity in Space, working at the interface of emerging technology, security, nuclear weapons, and nuclear technologies. He is an interdisciplinary researcher with masters degrees in Mechanical Engineering (MEng, Sheffield Hallam University) and Nuclear Energy (MRes, Imperial College London), and a PhD in the Governance of Outer Space from The Open University. Prior to joining the LCHS, Chris was the Emerging Technologies Programme Manager, and Growth and Impact Manager at the British American Security Information Council (BASIC) and was also a civil servant for a time. His research interests include the evolving character of nuclear competition and conflict, and specifically the role of emerging and evolving technologies in that.

David Webbe-Wood received his PhD from the Open University in 2024. Prior to that he worked for UK Civil Service in a number of scientific and engineering roles. He has participated in the IAEA EMRAS and BIOMOVS biosphere modelling programmes and the Anglo-Indian eMEANNS project for which he is a co-author of the book Perspectives on Engineering Uncertainty. 

Professor Tom Scott is a distinguished materials scientist and Director of the Interface Analysis Centre at the University of Bristol, a specialist analytical centre for research on materials of all types. He holds a first-class MSci honours degree in Geology and a PhD in Nuclear Materials.He is also a Royal Academy of Engineering Professorial Research Fellow co-funded by the UKAEA. He is Director of the South West Nuclear Hub and lectures in the Schools of Physics and Earth Sciences at Bristol. He has expertise in the detection and characterisation of nuclear materials to aid prediction of their behaviour in engineered and environmental scenarios. This includes activities relating to robotics and radiation detection for both fission and fusion energy applications. He works closely with UK government departments and agencies to ensure that facilities, materials and wastes stay safely managed.