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The company has already delivered its first barge and electric test reactor to its headquarters at the Port of Long Beach — becoming the first small modular reactor company to establish headquarters inside a major U.S. port.
LONG BEACH, Calif. — July 21, 2026 — BLUECORE ENERGY today emerged from stealth with a new approach to meeting the growing energy demands of the near future. As cities, ports, hospitals, data centers, and industry place increasing demands on the grid, building new energy generation infrastructure can take over a decade.
BLUECORE ENERGY is developing small modular, water-cooled nuclear power reactors designed to operate aboard floating energy barges and deliver reliable, zero-emission power directly to ports, critical infrastructure, and cargo ship propulsion.
“Our mission is simple: democratize access to clean energy,” said Asante. “Billions of people live near water, yet access to reliable power is still too often constrained by geography and existing infrastructure. We want to build a future where clean energy can go where it is needed.”
For BLUECORE ENERGY, the first application is power generation. The larger ambition is to build nuclear energy systems for the maritime economy — bringing reliable, zero-emission energy to the ports and infrastructure that move the world and, over time, to the ships that connect them.
BLUECORE ENERGY is headquartered at the Port of Long Beach, placing its engineers and operators directly within one of the world’s largest ports in the US. The company is the first small modular reactor company to establish its headquarters inside a major U.S. 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 has always been where global trade meets innovation, and today we’re becoming the place where the technologies that will power the future of the maritime economy are developed. BLUECORE ENERGY’s decision to build here reflects the momentum we’re creating by bringing together clean technology, advanced manufacturing, and world-class talent to grow the industries that will define the next generation.” — Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson
The Port of Long Beach is one of the busiest container ports in the United States, handling more than 9 million container units and approximately $300 billion in cargo annually. More than 90 percent of global trade moves by sea, while nuclear energy already provides approximately 20 percent of electricity in the United States. BLUECORE ENERGY sees an opportunity to bring these two proven systems together in a new way.
“Guided by our new 2050 vision, the Port of Long Beach is preparing for a future defined by electrification, growing energy demand and the transition to zero-emissions operations, which will require hundreds of megawatts of energy. Meeting that future will require new technologies and approaches to energy sources. We are excited to welcome BLUECORE ENERGY to the Port of Long Beach and its commitment to developing zero-emissions energy SMR solutions alongside the maritime community.” — Dr. Noel Hacegaba, Chief Executive Officer of the Port of Long Beach
“The world is entering a new era of energy demand,” said Kofi Asante, Founder and CEO of BLUECORE ENERGY. “Ports, industry, data centers, and critical infrastructure need more reliable power than ever before. We founded BLUECORE ENERGY because we believe there is a better way to deliver it — one that builds on established nuclear engineering principles and brings energy directly to where it is needed.”
The concept is simple: rather than waiting years for new power infrastructure to reach the point of demand, BLUECORE ENERGY is developing systems designed to bring the power source directly to it in the matter of days.
BLUECORE ENERGY’s initial 10 MWe system is being developed to power the equivalent of approximately 15,000 homes or scale to meet the power needs of a major port. Designed to be fueled once for years of operation, the reactor can be paired together for scale to provide a new power source for ports, utilities, data centers, offshore infrastructure, and communities facing energy constraints.
The company sees its initial approach to power generation as the first step in a broader maritime vision. Over time, BLUECORE ENERGY believes the same underlying technology can create a pathway toward cargo ship propulsion.
“My team and I took nuclear reactor technology that’s been running power plants safely for seventy years, made it smaller, and put it on a barge. A power plant that floats,” said Kofi.
BLUECORE ENERGY is moving beyond concept development and into physical execution. The company has already secured and delivered its first barge to its headquarters at the Port of Long Beach and is developing and testing components of its system as it advances its engineering, regulatory, classification, and commercialization pathways.
The team brings together engineers and operators from some of the most demanding programs in aerospace, defense, automotive and maritime, including SpaceX, Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman, Toyota, and Uber, alongside U.S. Navy nuclear submarine officers and a licensing advisor who has personally certified multiple operating reactors with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
“Slauson & Co. was built to democratize access to entrepreneurship. BLUECORE ENERGY was built to democratize access to clean energy. The overlap between our missions was clear when we met Kofi. The technology is real, the market is massive, and the founding team is exceptional. This is exactly why we do this work.” — Ajay Relan, Managing Partner, Slauson & Co.
The company has raised approximately $10 million in an oversubscribed financing round to support the development of its technology and the commercialization of its roadmap.
The round was led by Slauson & Co., with participation from Harlem Capital, Precursor Ventures, LMNT, Visible Hands VC, Karman Ventures, Chris Larsen, co-founder of Ripple, Capital Factory, Share VC, X&, Markham Ventures, and Hartbeat Ventures. The round also includes angel investors who are former leaders at Tesla, Uber, Amazon, and Google.
“We have spent the better part of our careers looking for diverse founders who leverage their lived experience to build generational companies. Kofi Asante is both. The first Black founder of a nuclear energy company in the United States, building a power plant that floats, at one of the biggest ports in the world, right in our backyard. This is exactly why Slauson exists.” — Austin Clements, Managing Partner, Slauson & Co.
Safety is foundational to BLUECORE ENERGY’s design philosophy.
The reactor is being engineered around defense-in-depth principles, with multiple layers of protection designed into the reactor architecture. The current design approach includes multiple physical barriers between the nuclear fuel and the environment, diverse shutdown systems, passive safety features, and water-based cooling.
BLUECORE ENERGY is also drawing from decades of operating experience in maritime nuclear propulsion while engineering its system for commercial maritime applications.
“Nuclear energy at sea is not a new idea,” said Asante. “Our opportunity is to take lessons from decades of maritime nuclear experience and combine them with modern engineering to build systems for a new generation of commercial applications.”
“Many communities are struggling to get clean and reliable energy, so we are sprinting to make that happen,” said Asante. “We’re already building and will continue to move quickly to bring safe, zero-emission, reliable energy to locations that need it.”
For more information, visit bluecore.energy