If a nuclear reactor was built in space would it be possible to transport the power created back to earth in the form of batteries?

Why would we go to the immense expense and significant risk of building a nuclear reactor in space instead of on the planet surface, only to then bring the power back to Earth? That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

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<Is a nuclear reactor in space even possible?> It's technically feasible, sure. Of course when a rocket loaded with radioactive fuel rods explodes on launch, that's going to be a bad day for the people living there, and for humankind all around.

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<is there some other way to get the power back to earth?> Microwave transmissions. But again, it makes no sense.

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<could nuclear waste be sent into the sun for disposal?> Sure. That might be the only advantage to having a nuclear reactor in space. But that would also mean we can't reprocess spent fuel rods, unless you're imagining putting a reprocessing plant in space too, by which time you might have used more energy putting these assets into space to begin with than you get out of the power plant in the first place.

So, if the power is intended for Earth, why not just build the reactor on Earth?

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Yes, but it woudl be too expensive as you have to launch the dead batteries into space then retrieve them.

A nuclear reactor is space is possible. NASA launched an experimental SNAP-10A nuclear reactor into space back in April 1965. It operated successfully for about 45 days until a component unrelated to the reactor failed. It's still up there, in a safe mode, boosted to a safe parking orbit where it should remain for the next 4,000 years.

However, getting the energy back down to earth using batteries is completely impractical. The batteries do not hold much energy, much too heavy and the reactor will require a continuous supply of batteries launched from Earth. It would be simpler to beam the energy using microwave beams but you will loose a lot of energy in the process.. If you going to go through the trouble of generating power in space and beaming it down to Earth, instead of a nuclear reactor, you should build a giant solar array and harvest the energy from the Sun. You still loose a lot of energy beaming it back but at least it's free.

You could build one in space, but... why? We have them here - and, you don’t need to transport the energy anywhere.

Instead of batteries, you could create microwaves, and *beam* the energy back to Earth, but again - why place a reactor in space? I’d set up a huge array of solar panels - then beam the energy down in microwaves, where it’s collected and converted back to electricity for distribution. Much easier, less dangerous, and no radioactive waste to dispose of...

And solar cells would be far and away easier to transport up, and build.

Even a heat pump where one side is heated by the sun, the other cooled by the shaded vacuum of space.

Batteries would be very impractical but microwaves or lasers could work.