Bluecore Energy raises $10 million to build barge-borne nuclear reactors

Start-up of marine nuclear power Bluecore Energy It said Tuesday it had raised $10 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Slauson & Co.

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

Asante claims that the energy expected to be produced on the BlueCore barges can be transported by ship to its next location, reducing emissions from transporting it to zero. In addition, he said, the entire system behind the nuclear power plant only needs to be refueled once every few years.

Bluecore barges can also be anchored near communities and can connect to the power grid via submarine cables. The goal is to try to power the equivalent of about 15,000 homes or scales to meet the power needs of a major port, he told TechCrunch.

“We are able to take advantage of current water-cooled nuclear technology that has been in operation for more than 70 years,” he said. “With a pipeline of small modular reactors that can be quickly deployed on water, there is a path to providing clean energy to the majority of the country.”

Bluecore will use the new capital to roll out its product. Asante said it had already secured a port terminal, a barge and a pressure vessel for the test reactor. “The test vessel allows us to simulate flow with water, which is the system’s cooling source. We combine hardware and software testing to validate and verify the basis of our design,” he added.

The startup is working with regulatory bodies to “embed the safest design decision” into its first product. The startup is building several layers of “safety and redundancy,” such as encasing and protecting the uranium in a thick steel pressure vessel and then lining it with a concrete shield and steel liner, Asante said.

Asante hopes BlueCore can help meet the increasing power demand caused by ongoing data center construction. “AI data center executives have told me that they would not need to draw water or power from their surrounding communities if they were able to source their own electricity and have the water supplied 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.