Russian Energy officials were quoted saying at an academic conference that Russia is planning to build a full scale moonbase mine by 2015 to mine and deliver the rare Helium-3 isotope to Earth for use in Nuclear Fusion.

Current isotopes used in Nuclear fission/fusion include Uranium which has significant amounts of radioactive by-product namely plutonium 239. It is this man-made by product of current nuclear technology that is so dangerous and becoming very difficult to store and maintain. It is this radioactive metal that is used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons.

If Russian agencies do establish a mine on the moon and begin extraction of Helium-3 for transportation back to earth, this would mean that the rare H3 isotope can be used in nuclear reactors with no (or minimal) radioactive by product.

"Rare on earth but plentiful on the moon, it is seen by some experts as an ideal fuel because it is powerful, non-polluting and generates almost no radioactive by-product" - news.com.au: Russia to open moonbase mine.

This could be a very big deal for the planet's energy sources for probably the next thousand years but just reading through this article, one must think that establishing a mine on the moon could become highly controversial and would probably require approval from other countries representatives and possibly the UN or similar organisation.