this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2025
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Not The Onion

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[–] amlor@piefed.social 85 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Translation: russian government is out of ideas on how to embezzle even more budget money.

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[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 49 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Lol it often takes longer than a decade to build one on earth

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[–] slaacaa@lemmy.world 45 points 1 month ago
[–] arockinyourshoe@lemmy.world 44 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

That's right, my friends. Tonight, we are going to Chernobyl..

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[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 35 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

This is a fucking joke. I wish media wouldn't take it seriously.

I recently read this about their "new" spacestation:

The latest concept for the ROS reflects Roscosmos' changing situation in recent years, owing to sanctions and the termination of international cooperation following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. According to Orlov's announcement, Russia will separate its modules from the ISS once the program is completed in 2030, forming the core of the ROS, with other modules to follow.

In other words, they're just decoupling & rearranging the modules & renaming the result.

Feel free to extrapolate from that how realistic a Russian nuclear plant on the moon is.

[–] leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com 31 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Sure, and I plan to win the lottery.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

Russia's got more of a space program than the US at this point. And they've continued to build and modernize their nuclear infrastructure, with the youngest plant coming online as recently as 2020 and seven in the pipe.

They're two industries the country has keep in relative working order while the rest of the economy was scrapped for parts back in the '90s/'00s.

Insane to think they are in a position to colonize the moon when they're quagmired in Ukraine and slaughtering hundreds of thousands of young men to keep at it. But they have the kit to try in a way no other county - except maybe China or India - could hope to.

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[–] Rozauhtuno@lemmy.blahaj.zone 31 points 1 month ago (3 children)
[–] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Well, you can't put permanent infrastructure on the moon without a plan to power it. So, a power plant has to be the first step, that's why NASA has the kilopower program, even though we don't have a permanent moon base yet.

[–] wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (7 children)

The sun, right over there: "um, hello?"

[–] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (6 children)

Well the sun works great for orbit around the moon, but on the surface a day/night cycle lasts a month. So that's about 15 days of night at a time.

Obviously there's no wind on the moon and burning things makes no sense. So literally the only options left are nuclear or lots and lots of batteries.

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[–] D_C@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 month ago

Space lasers!!

[–] markz@suppo.fi 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago

The dark side of

[–] rockerface@lemmy.cafe 30 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They can't even handle the nuclear power plant on the territory they occupied

[–] jwt@programming.dev 25 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You don't understand, the moon needs to be liberated from lunar nazis.

[–] runner_g@piefed.blahaj.zone 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)
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[–] Aeao@lemmy.world 27 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They also planned to take Ukraine. See how well their plans work out for them?

[–] Klear@quokk.au 6 points 1 month ago

And that was supposed to take 3 days, so a decade here means at least a thousand years.

Yeah, that sounds doable.

[–] anton@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 points 1 month ago (3 children)

The only thing that has worse cooling problems than data centers in space, is a nuclear power plant in space

[–] Jason2357@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Also, nuclear power plants are steam powered. Good luck. They /might/ drop a nuclear battery, like the kind in some old satellites or apace probes, on the moon, generating a couple hundred watts with 1970s technology.

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[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago
[–] Goldholz@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 1 month ago

Suuure russia. Ofc you are still a big mighty strong power that can beat up anyone especially all of NATO at once. Now here is cookie

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Jesus fuck, Russia can barely build a coal-fired plant in Moscow these days. They're barely holding their own against a country they invaded that had virtually no preparation for being invaded because they thought a treaty protected them, so a bunch of farmers and housewives took up arms.

Good fucking luck, Vlad. Russia is a country of drunks and weaklings that can't tie their own shoes and has been embarassed on the international stage since the 19th century. You're a joke country that happens to have nuclear weapons, it's like an autistic child with a molotov cocktail.

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[–] SnarkoPolo@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

"Good news, Comrade! Putin need you for high paying job at nuclear plant! Bad news, you will relocate, and is permanently!"

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 4 points 1 month ago

I'd rather be stuck on the moon than deal with the bullshit down here

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago

It, like the moon, will be made of cheese.

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They also planned to overrun Ukraine in three days.

Given the usual level of Russian corruption, they will notice when they want to draw power from that reactor that someone had already sold off the nuclear fuel and replaced the rods on the reactor with lead.

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 11 points 1 month ago

Ah, so I have a joke about Soviet corruption that applies to modern Russia too

A brand new apartment building in Moscow collapses. Investigators are sent to interrogate the suspects.

First they ask the sand. The sand defends itself: "How could you even suspect me? I'm so white, pure of heart!"

Second they ask a brick. The brick replies: "Look at me, so red. An exemplary communist, how could you suspect me?"

Last, they ask the cement. The cement goes: "Why are you blaming me? I wasn't even there!"

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 1 month ago (2 children)

There's only two sources of power on other planets/outer space, and that is nuclear and solar.

Wind and water and biomass and geothermal and fossil fuels are out of the question, because of lack of said things or lack of oxygen to burn anything.

That being said, "nuclear" only works if it's steady-state and does not use water/air input. That excludes steam engines and such, and basically only leaves RTGs (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator).

These are solid-state devices (meaning they have no moving parts) and convert the heat directly into electricity using TEGs (Thermoelectric Generator). They don't need water or air input.

RTGs have an overall fuel efficiency of around 3-5%, meaning they translate around 3-5% of the radioactive decay heat of the nuclear material into electric power output.

[–] chaosmarine92@reddthat.com 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Reactors on earth are huge and built to run at 100% all the time because that's the most economical way to do it. That is not a physics requirement, it's just the most profitable for the current economic environment. You can design a reactor that can throttle output if you need to and many small modular reactors currently in the licensing approval process include this ability.

Nevermind the fact that a "large" RTG only puts out about 100 watts of electricity and it's nuclear fuel must be bred in reactors beforehand. There is only enough RTG fuel for maybe 20 large units on the planet right now.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

You can design a reactor that can throttle output if you need to

yeah i've been thinking about these reactors a lot. problem is, to make a reactor regulatable like that, the material must be fissable. I.e. you can't use PU-238 (which has a half-life of 87 years and is typically used in RTGs today), instead you'd use U-235 or sth (which is used in big nuclear reactors today). Problem is, that material is fissable (i.e. it undergoes chain reaction and runs at or just below criticality) and that is why you can build bombs out of it. Then, to bring such a reactor into space, you'd have to lift it off with a rocket, and there's your problem: You'd have to transport (large amounts of) fissable material with a rocket across earth into the sky. And that's how you provoke international nuclear conflict.

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[–] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Wait, why would wind and water be rare on other planets? Finding good places to do water-based renewables is probably gonna be difficult on most planets, but shouldn't most planets with atmospheres have wind?

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

yeah you're right, air can be used on mars for example. (not wind though because wind is too weak at only 6 mbar atmospheric pressure, so it can barely move anything, and especially not a heavy rotary blade from a wind turbine.) but you could use the air to drive a stirling engine or sth, maybe, if you compress it first.

but the engine has to be really low-maintenance, because repairing it is basically out of the question. repairing something very far away from any larger civilization is really difficult. and typically, things that have no moving parts (steady-state) are much less likely to break, so have much longer lifetimes.

[–] blattrules@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Are there nuclear power plants that don’t use water now?

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[–] shittydwarf@piefed.social 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They used to do this shit all the time to trick America into wasting time and resources trying to keep up with them

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[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Again with this propaganda bullshit. Don't you people get tired of swallowing Putler's cum?

[–] ThunderclapSasquatch@startrek.website 5 points 1 month ago (11 children)

This is nottheonion. You understand the point of this place right?

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[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

They can plan it all they want

[–] Asfalttikyntaja@sopuli.xyz 8 points 1 month ago

Oh yes, moon nazis intensifies.

[–] webp@mander.xyz 7 points 1 month ago

We know how new year's resolutions usually turn out

[–] rozodru@pie.andmc.ca 6 points 1 month ago

shit I'm more likely to put a nuclear power plant on the moon guarded by state of the art Mobile Suits piloted by Jedi Knights than Russia is.

[–] kyonshi@piefed.social 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Because Russian time estimates have been so very reliable the last few years

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[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago
[–] Zachariah@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)
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