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Question

Politico's August 4, 2025 Duffy to announce nuclear reactor on the moon discusses interim NASA administrator Sean Duffy's

...reactor directive (which) orders the agency to solicit industry proposals for a 100 kilowatt nuclear reactor to launch by 2030, a key consideration for astronauts’ return to the lunar surface.

[...]

The first country to have a reactor could “declare a keep-out zone which would significantly inhibit the United States,” the directive states, a sign of the agency’s concern about a joint project China and Russia have launched.

The directive also orders NASA to designate a leader for the effort and to get industry input within 60 days. The agency is seeking companies able to launch a reactor by 2030 since that’s around the time China intends to land its first astronaut on the moon.

Question(s):

• What is a "keep-out zone" in this context?
• Why might a keep-out zone "significantly inhibit the United States"?

We can't attempt to get into other people's heads, but there must be some body of "space planning" that has explored the eventual attempts to stake out territory and/or occupy real-estate on the lunar surface that can be drawn-from to form the basis of an answer.

Answer 1

Unclear

Like many statements from this administration, the logic behind this is unclear / absent, but we can make some assumptions.

Protect the Reactor

Since reactor accidents are significant problems, reactors are generally protected from outside interactions; with the low gravity and no air resistance, debris from a crash or other incident could travel a long distance and damage a reactor.

Protect FROM the Reactor

Shielding, especially for neutron radiation, is a challenge. See this NRC slide deck for deep dive. The rule of thumb is 10 inches of water reduces the neutron flux by an order of magnitude. Thus, to reduce 4 or 5 orders of magnitude, several feet of shielding is required. Neutron radiation activates many materials making the material itself also radioactive, so the shielding may become a gamma emitter after some time in use.

Reactor designs are likely to use shadow-shields that protect the intended base, but allow high radiation exposure in areas outside of the shadow, including activating the lunar regolith. This, in effect, creates a no-go area outside the colony.

Inhibit US Interests?

I'm somewhat skeptical that other powers could use these keep-out zones to impede US activities. I suppose that some Lunar locations could be more valuable than others; perpetually sunlit locations near the poles, surface / near surface water ice, etc. And they could be "claimed" by building a reactor there.

This strikes me more as someone trying to protect existing research - such as the kilopower project that was started before the first Trump administration - by dressing it up as national security.

Honestly, I think an argument like "we can manufacture satellites on the moon for cheaper than the cost of building/launching them from Earth, but the market is small enough, and the start up costs are high enough, that whoever gets there first will monopolize it" makes a better national security case for a nuclear powered lunar base, but that's me.