Bluecore Energy raises $10M to put nuclear reactors on barges

Bluecore Energy raises $10M to put nuclear reactors on barges Bluecore Energy Inc. today announced that it had raised $10 million to shrink nuclear reactors to barge size and dock them at ports where the grid falls short. The pitch is zero-emission power for ports and other sites where grid capacity runs short. The reactors are water-cooled and sit on floating energy barges. They would power ports and critical infrastructure first, and Bluecore wants to run cargo ships on them down the line. Founder and Chief Executive Kofi Asante sums up the concept plainly: Take reactor technology that has run power plants for 70 years, make it smaller and put it on a barge. “A power plant that floats,” he said. Bluecore is headquartered at the Port of Long Beach, which it says makes it the first small modular reactor company to base itself inside a major U.S. port. The company has already delivered its first barge and an electric test reactor to the site and is now building and testing components as it works through the engineering, regulatory and classification steps. The first system produces 10 megawatts of electricity. That is enough for about 15,000 homes, or one major port, according to the company. Each reactor is fueled once and then runs for years. When a customer needs more, Bluecore bolts several units together and it’s targeting utilities, data centers and offshore operators. Power generation is the first application. Asante frames maritime propulsion as the longer-term goal, with the same underlying technology eventually driving the ships that carry more than 90% of global trade. Much of the company’s pitch rests on who it has hired. Bluecore said its team includes engineers from Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Blue Origin LLC, Northrop Grumman Corp., Toyota Motor Corp. and Uber Technologies Inc., along with former U.S. Navy nuclear submarine officers and a licensing advisor who has personally certified multiple operating reactors with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Safety is built around defense-in-depth engineering, with multiple physical barriers between the nuclear fuel and the environment, diverse shutdown systems, passive safety features and water-based cooling. Asante argues the approach is not a leap into the unknown. “Nuclear energy at sea is not a new idea,” he said, pointing to decades of naval propulsion experience as the basis for a commercial version. The location drew an endorsement from the port. “There is no better place to launch the next generation of zero-emission maritime energy than the world’s first Green Port,” Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson said. The Port of Long Beach handles more than 9 million container units and about $300 billion in cargo a year, and it has set a 2050 target for zero-emission operations that Port Chief Executive Noel Hacegaba said will require hundreds of megawatts of new power. The pre-seed round was led by Slauson & Co. Other backers include Harlem Capital Partners Management Company, Precursor Ventures Management, LMNT Ventures, Visible Hands VC, Karman Ventures, Capital Factory, Share VC, X&, Markham Ventures, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen and Hartbeat Ventures, the firm founded by comedian Kevin Hart. Angel investors who are former leaders at Tesla, Uber, Amazon.com Inc. and Google LLC also joined. The financing is Bluecore’s first outside round and will fund the development of the reactor and its commercialization path. Image: Bluecore A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE: Support our mission to keep content open and free by engaging with theCUBE community. Join theCUBE’s Alumni Trust Network, where technology leaders connect, share intelligence and create opportunities. 15M+ viewers of theCUBE videos, powering conversations across AI, cloud, cybersecurity and more 11.4k+ theCUBE alumni — Connect with more than 11,400 tech and business leaders shaping the future through a unique trusted-based network. Are you AWS customer? Support SiliconANGLE Financially by buying your AWS services from our Marketplace portal page and links. About SiliconANGLE Media SiliconANGLE Media is a recognized leader in digital media innovation, uniting breakthrough technology, strategic insights and real-time audience engagement. As the parent company of SiliconANGLE, theCUBE Network, theCUBE Research, CUBE365, theCUBE AI and theCUBE SuperStudios — with flagship locations in Silicon Valley and the New York Stock Exchange — SiliconANGLE Media operates at the intersection of media, technology and AI. Founded by tech visionaries John Furrier and Dave Vellante, SiliconANGLE Media has built a dynamic ecosystem of industry-leading digital media brands that reach 15+ million elite tech professionals. Our new proprietary theCUBE AI Video Cloud is breaking ground in audience interaction, leveraging theCUBEai.com neural network to help technology companies make data-driven decisions and stay at the forefront of industry conversations.