LONG BEACH, CA — Bluecore Energy has raised $50 million to accelerate development of its unusual plan to generate nuclear power aboard floating barges, and its CEO told Patch Tuesday that the company could order its first nuclear fuel before the end of the year.
The Long Beach-based startup announced the seed funding round Tuesday, less than two months after emerging from stealth with a previously announced $10 million pre-seed round.
The latest financing was led by Silverton Partners and is intended to support engineering, testing, regulatory work, hiring and nuclear fuel purchases as Bluecore works toward deploying its first floating nuclear energy system.
Founder and CEO Kofi Asante told Patch Tuesday that the financing is also allowing the company to advance several important pieces of its Long Beach project, including fuel procurement and regulatory work with federal agencies.
And Bluecore's eventual operating reactor may not remain at Berth 48, where its headquarters, barge and non-fueled prototype are now located. Asante said the company's operating power system would likely be positioned miles offshore, with electricity transmitted back to the Port of Long Beach through subsea cables.
"The reality is that our barge or energy system, it will likely end up being offshore, so miles away, and then we can use subsea cables," Asante said, adding that the reasoning is largely practical.
"There isn't really a strong reason to take up the berth space here for the barge," Asante said, noting the value of working waterfront space. "It's good real estate."
Bluecore currently leases space at the Port's D48 Warehouse, along with adjacent paved property and approximately 6,000 square feet of submerged land where a barge can be moored.
A California environmental filing for the lease describes Bluecore's Long Beach project as a research and development operation involving a non-hazardous maritime reactor module prototype. The prototype consists of an empty steel vessel that allows engineers to install sensors and controls and test monitoring systems. It is not an operating nuclear reactor.
Asante told Patch that Bluecore is already working with established nuclear fuel suppliers and could place an order sometime this year. But the fuel would not initially be delivered to Long Beach.
Instead, Asante said it could be delivered next year to a national nuclear laboratory in another state that already has facilities capable of receiving nuclear material.
"The nuclear fuel that we would be ordering sometime this year, delivered next year, would not necessarily be coming to the Long Beach port," Asante said.
"It would actually be going to another location where they already receive nuclear fuel at a national lab in another state," he added. "That is unlocked by this capital now."
Bluecore says its planned system will use established water-cooled reactor technology and commercial-grade low-enriched uranium. Its first system is being designed to generate about 10 megawatts of continuous electricity, according to the company, with ports, critical infrastructure and other energy-intensive facilities among its intended customers.
The $50 million financing announced Tuesday follows the $10 million pre-seed round Bluecore disclosed when it emerged from stealth in July.
Bluecore has also begun formal engagement with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Coast Guard over its proposed floating reactor system.
Asante said those discussions have progressed to review of the company's design. "The work we're doing with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Coast Guard has already kicked off, so we have a formal engagement with them," Asante told Patch.
Bluecore began working with the agencies in August and is now in the pre-application phase. Asante said the company could submit a formal application "fairly soon."
The NRC says existing federal licensing frameworks can be used for maritime reactors, including floating nuclear power plants.
The agency and Coast Guard also recently established a memorandum of understanding to coordinate oversight of civilian maritime nuclear projects. The agreement establishes a framework for coordinating requirements involving the design, construction, operation and oversight of civilian reactors installed aboard vessels or other facilities under Coast Guard jurisdiction.
Asante said the new financing has likely accelerated Bluecore's anticipated timeline toward achieving first criticality, the point at which a reactor sustains a controlled nuclear chain reaction.
He said 2027 remains a possibility, though the company is not committing to a specific date. "It is likely accelerated," Asante said, pointing to Bluecore's work with regulators, the Port of Long Beach, national laboratories, fuel suppliers and reactor manufacturers.
"I'm still looking at sometime next year, 2027," he said. Asante stressed, however, that Bluecore's priorities are "first safety and then speed."
Achieving criticality would also not mean that Bluecore was ready to begin commercial operations at the Port of Long Beach.
Asante added that the company still has "probably a few years of work" ahead before reaching an operational stage and emphasized that a fueled system could not operate without federal and local approvals. "We won't be in a position to be able to do anything operationally until there's federal and local approvals," he said.
Meanwhile, work on Bluecore's non-nuclear prototype at the Port has progressed. Asante said the company has connected a desalination system to seawater and is already producing water he described as drinkable.
"There is no nuclear fuel here, just for the record," Asante said of the Long Beach site. "There's no radiation. It's all just electrical, mechanical work here, primarily."
Bluecore has also moved desalinated water through tanks and piping to test water flow as it develops the water-cooled system planned for its eventual reactor.
Asante said desalination could become more than simply part of the reactor's cooling system. He sees water production as another potential application for the reliable electricity Bluecore hopes its systems will ultimately produce.
The company has also received interest from artificial intelligence data centers, according to Asante, and he said Bluecore's systems could eventually provide electricity for ports, desalination plants, data centers, electrical grids or communities.
"Our mission and our company's mission is to democratize access to clean energy," Asante said. "And by doing so, you also do the same thing for water."
For Long Beach, however, the immediate milestones remain considerably more basic: continuing development and testing of the non-fueled prototype, progressing through the federal regulatory process and placing Bluecore's first nuclear fuel order.
The Port of Long Beach did not immediately respond to Patch's questions seeking an update on its discussions with Bluecore, whether plans involving Berth 48 have changed or whether Tuesday's funding announcement affects its expectations for the project.
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