Bluecore Energy, an offshore nuclear energy startup, announced Tuesday that it has raised $10 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Slauson & Company.
Founded seven months ago by Kofi Asante, who previously worked for Uber Freight, Bluecore builds small nuclear reactors (SMRs) on floating barges with the aim of providing clean power to ports and nearby infrastructure. A nuclear reactor heats water and sends the generated steam to a generator, which spins a turbine to generate electricity, Asante explained. The system is closed loop water cooled.
Asante claims that the energy expected to be produced by Blue Core's barges can be transferred by ship to its next location, reducing the emissions associated with transportation to zero. Additionally, the entire system behind a nuclear power plant only needs to be refueled once every few years, he said.
Bluecore barges can also be anchored close to local communities and connected to the power grid via undersea cables. The goal is to try to power “the equivalent of about 15,000 homes, or the power needs of a major port,” he told TechCrunch.
“We can take advantage of existing water-cooled nuclear technology that has been in operation for more than 70 years,” he said. “A production line for small modular nuclear reactors that can be rapidly deployed on water would provide a path to providing clean energy to large parts of the country.”
Bluecore will use the new capital to expand its products. Asante said the port terminal, barge and test reactor pressure vessel have already been secured. “The test vessel allows us to simulate the flow of water, which is the cooling source for the system. We use a combination of hardware and software testing to verify and validate the fundamentals of our design,” he added.
The startup is working with regulators to “incorporate the safest design decisions” into its first product. Asante said the company is building layers of “safety and redundancy,” including protecting the uranium by encasing it in a thick steel pressure vessel and padding it with a concrete shield and steel lining.
Mr. Asante hopes that Bluecore may be able to contribute to the increased demand for electricity caused by the ongoing construction of data centers. “AI Data Center executives have told me that they don't need to pull water or energy from surrounding communities when they can receive their own power sources and use water provided at sea,” he said.
Other investors in the round include Harlem Capital, Precursor Ventures, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, actor Kevin Hart's Heartbeat Ventures, and several angel investors.
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