Pictured: ESA's Cassini Saturn probe
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassini%E2%80%93Huygens#/media/File:Cassini_Saturn_Orbit_Insertion.jpg
The European Space Agency
The European Space Agency (ESA) meets the Tier 3 threshold. The intergovernmental space agency, composed of 22 European states, stands as one of the 12 space agencies that have a demonstrated satellite launch capability [1]. The ESA also has access to HEU and enrichment capabilities through several of its member states, such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, and France. However, the ESA has not indicated interest in developing HEU-fueled or LEU-fueled space reactors.
The Agency produced an advanced study on “space fission systems” in 2003, but since then, little consideration has been paid to space reactors [2]. Messer records in 2013 that Dr. Jean-Claude Worms, head of the Space Sciences Unit at the European Science Foundation, expected that the next Framework Program (2014-2020) would not address space nuclear propulsion [3]. (Note: the European Union’s Research and Innovation Program creates the Framework Program to direct the research activities of the ESA.) Dr. Worms’ prediction was correct. The document does not direct the ESA to research, develop, or produce any type of nuclear fission space reactor during the 2014-2020 period.
Nonetheless, the ESA maintains the technical capabilities and materials needed to create and fuel an HEU space reactor. If its member states were to direct the ESA to compete in an HEU space race, it would be poised to do so.
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[1] James Conca, “Nuclear In Space -- The NETS Meeting,” Forbes, February 28, 2019, https://thebulletin.org/2019/09/do-we-need-highly-enriched-uranium-in-space-again/.
[2] Leopold Summerer, Bruno Gardini, and Giacinto Gianfiglio, “ESA’s approach to nuclear power sources for space applications,” Proceedings of ICAPP Paper 7325, May 13, 2007,
[3] Blake Messer, “Space Reactors,” in Nuclear Terrorism and Global Security: The Challenge of Phasing out Highly Enriched Uranium, ed. Alan J. Kuperman (New York: Routledge, 2013): 218.