Kofi Asante spent years moving freight at Uber. Now he wants to move nuclear power plants. His new company, Bluecore Energy, announced Tuesday that it raised $10 million in pre-seed funding to build small modular reactors on floating barges, a concept that sounds radical until you consider that the underlying technology has been running for over 70 years.
The Concept
Bluecore's reactors use established water-cooled nuclear technology in a closed-loop system. The reactor heats water, the steam drives a generator, and the turbine produces electricity. The entire plant sits on a barge that can be towed to where power is needed: ports, coastal communities, or offshore data centers.
The mobility is the point. "The energy expected to be produced on Bluecore's barges can be moved by ship to its next location, reducing the emission involved in its transport to zero," Asante said. The system needs refueling only once every few years. Each barge could power roughly 15,000 homes or scale to meet a major port's demand, connected to the grid via subsea cables.
The Safety Stack
Asante is aware that "portable nuclear reactor" raises eyebrows. Bluecore is building multiple layers of safety and redundancy: uranium clad in thick steel, encased in a pressure vessel, padded with concrete shielding and steel lining. The company is working with regulators to "embed the safest design decision" into its first product and has already secured a port terminal, a barge, and a test reactor pressure vessel for validation.
The Data Center Angle
The timing is not accidental. AI data centers are consuming power at rates that strain local grids and water supplies. Asante says data center executives have told him they would prefer self-contained power sources that do not pull water or energy from surrounding communities. A barge-mounted reactor docked offshore offers exactly that: its own power and unlimited seawater for cooling.
The Investors
Slauson & Co. led the round. Other participants include Harlem Capital, Precursor Ventures, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, and actor Kevin Hart's HartBeat Ventures. The mix of traditional venture firms, crypto wealth, and entertainment money reflects how nuclear energy has shifted from pariah to priority in climate and energy conversations.
Bluecore plans to use the capital to deploy its first product. If the regulatory path clears, the company could be generating power from a barge sooner than most people expect. The question is not whether the technology works. It is whether communities and regulators will accept it in their harbors.