A startup founded just seven months ago is betting that the future of clean energy floats. Bluecore Energy has raised $10 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Slauson & Co. to build small modular nuclear reactors mounted on barges, aiming to deliver zero-emission power directly to ports and the infrastructure around them, according to TechCrunch.
The company was founded by Kofi Asante, who previously worked at Uber Freight before leaving his job in January to pursue the venture full time. His pitch centers on a simple but ambitious idea: instead of waiting years for new power plants and transmission lines to reach areas that need electricity, bring a floating nuclear power plant to the demand instead.
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Bluecore’s system works by heating water inside the reactor and channeling the resulting steam into a generator, which spins a turbine to produce electricity. The setup is water-cooled and operates in a closed loop, a method Asante notes has powered vessels and plants safely for more than seven decades. Because the entire unit sits on a barge, it can be towed by ship from one location to another, a mobility factor Asante says effectively eliminates the emissions typically tied to transporting new power infrastructure.
One of the more striking claims from the company is how infrequently its reactors need attention. Asante says the system is designed to be refueled only once every several years, a maintenance cycle far longer than most traditional power sources require. Each unit is expected to generate enough electricity to power around 15,000 homes, and multiple barges could be paired together to scale up capacity for larger ports, data centers, or entire communities facing energy shortfalls.
Once docked, the barges can connect to the local power grid through subsea cables, allowing them to plug into existing infrastructure without requiring new land-based construction. Bluecore has already made tangible progress toward its first deployment. The company has secured a port terminal, acquired a barge, and obtained a test reactor pressure vessel, which it is using to simulate water flow and validate the cooling design central to the reactor’s safety.
Safety appears to be a major focus as the startup works through the regulatory process. Asante says Bluecore is building in multiple layers of protection, including encasing uranium in thick cladding, and is actively collaborating with regulatory agencies to embed the safest possible design choices into its first commercial product.
The raise places Bluecore among a small but growing group of companies betting that nuclear power’s next chapter will be built on water rather than land. Rival startup Blue Energy has taken a related approach, constructing reactors in shipyards and transporting completed units by barge to installation sites, and recently closed a much larger $380 million round for a grid-scale project in Texas. Bluecore’s smaller, more mobile model suggests a different niche, one focused less on massive grid-scale output and more on rapidly deployable power for ports, coastal communities, and maritime operations that have historically struggled to access reliable clean energy.
With fresh capital in hand, Bluecore now moves toward testing and refining its first working reactor, a step that will determine whether floating nuclear power can move from concept to reality faster than the traditional plants it hopes to outpace.
