California-based startup Bluecore Energy has raised $50 million in seed funding to develop floating nuclear power plants designed to supply ports, AI datacentres and other locations facing rapidly growing energy demands. The Silverton Partners-led round, which incorporates $10 million in previously announced pre-seed funding, will be used to engineer and test its compact reactor system and pursue regulatory approval and maritime classification, marking a step towards commercialising barge-mounted nuclear generation.

Bluecore's initial design aims to generate around 10 MWe continuously using light-water reactor technology, operating for years at a time with refuelling needed only every few years. The company has secured its first barge and is building a non-fuelled prototype reactor module at its Port of Long Beach headquarters, and has begun talks with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Coast Guard, which recently agreed to coordinate oversight of such plants. The firm remains years from commercial deployment, having yet to build a fuelled reactor or secure operating approval, while Russia currently runs the world's only floating nuclear plant, the larger 70 MWe Akademik Lomonosov.