Bluecore Energy raises $10M to build portable nuclear reactors on barges

Maritime nuclear energy startup Bluecore Energy on Tuesday said it had raised $10 million in a pre-seed funding round that was led by Slauson & Co.

Founded seven months ago by Kofi Asante, who previously worked with Uber Freight, Bluecore is building small nuclear reactors (SMRs) on floating barges with an aim to provide clean power to ports and nearby infrastructure. The reactors heat water and transfer the resulting steam into a generator, which then spins a turbine to generate electricity, Asante explained . The system is water-cooled in a closed-loop.

The energy expected to be produced on BlueCore’s barges can be moved by ship to its next location, reducing the emission involved in its transport to zero, Asante claims. Plus, he said the entire system behind the nuclear power plant only needs to be refueled once every few years.

Bluecore’s barges can also be docked near communities, and can connect to the power grid via subsea cables. The goal is to try to power the “equivalent of approximately 15,000 homes or scale to meet the power needs of a major port,” he told TechCrunch.

“We are able to utilize existing water-cooled nuclear technology that has been operating for over 70 years,” he said. “With a production line of small modular reactors that can be rapidly deployed on water, there is a pathway to provide clean energy to the majority of the country.”

Bluecore will be using the fresh capital to deploy its product. It has already secured a port terminal, barge, and test reactor pressure vessel, Asante said. “The test vessel allows us to simulate flow with water, which is the cooling source of the system. We are combining hardware with software testing to validate and verify the foundation of our design,” he added.

The startup is working with regulatory agencies to “embed the safest design decision” into its first product. Asante said the startup is building many layers of “safety and redundancy,” like having the uranium clad and protected in a thick steel pressure vessel and then padded with concrete shielding and steel lining.

Asante is hoping BlueCore may be able to help with the increasing power demand sparked by the ongoing data center buildout. “AI data centers execs have shared with me that they would not need to pull water or energy from communities around them if they are able to receive their own source of electricity and have access to water that is provided at sea,” he said.

Other investors in the round include Harlem Capital, Precursor Ventures, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, and actor Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat Ventures, as well as a few angel investors.