MarineLog article: Maritime Administrator tours Bluecore Energy's Port of Long Beach facility. U.S. Maritime Administrator Capt. Stephen M. Carmel toured Bluecore Energy's Pier D facility at the Port of Long Beach, hosted by founder and CEO Kofi Asante alongside Port CEO Dr. Noel Hacegaba. The tour featured a demonstration of the company's non-nuclear SMR test pressure vessel, which contains no nuclear fuel or radioactive material. Bluecore is developing compact, water-cooled reactors for floating maritime platforms to supply zero-emission power to ports and industrial users. The port was the first U.S. seaport to formalize a MARAD partnership on maritime nuclear energy. Original Article from MarineLog | Written by Nick Blenkey Note: The articles in this newsletter are shared solely to keep its members informed on issues affecting the maritime community. Their inclusion does not constitute endorsement of any article's conclusions, recommendations, or viewpoints. National News A converted Caspian Sea firefighting tug is now Canada's first new large Great Lakes cutter in three decades. September 17, 2026 National News The Port of Long Beach handled its busiest August on record, moving 919,992 TEUs as U.S. container imports stayed stronger than expected through late summer. Imports rose 3.6 percent year over year, marking the fifth-busiest month in the port's 115-year history. September 15, 2026 National News Marad is activating SUNY Maritime's training ship Empire State for a roughly 170-day federal mission beginning Sept. 1, reportedly to Diego Garcia, to help expand transportation capacity for naval personnel in the Indo-Pacific. September 2, 2026

Bluecore Energy raises $50M for floating nuclear power. Bluecore Energy is trying to turn the shoreline into part of the power grid. The Long Beach startup announced an oversubscribed $50M Seed round on September 8, 2026, led by Silverton Partners, to advance compact, water-cooled nuclear reactors designed for floating barges. The financing gives Bluecore room to work on the less visible parts of a maritime nuclear system: engineering, hardware, testing, validation, licensing, maritime classification, manufacturing preparation, hiring, and fuel procurement. It also puts a larger burden on the company to distinguish a test platform from a deployable power plant. Bluecore has secured a terminal and delivered a barge to the Port of Long Beach, where it is assembling an electrically heated reactor-module prototype. That prototype contains no nuclear fuel or radioactive material. Its job is to test sensors, controls, monitoring, and water flow while the company builds the evidence needed for later technical and regulatory decisions. The $50M includes Bluecore's earlier Pre-Seed. The Seed announcement follows a $10M Pre-Seed disclosed in July. Axios and The Register report that the new $50M figure includes that earlier capital. The conservative total disclosed funding is therefore $50M, not $60M. Silverton led the round. Returning backers include Slauson & Co., Harlem Capital, Precursor Ventures, LMNT Ventures, Visible Hands, Capital Factory, Share Ventures, X&, Markham Valley Ventures, HartBeat Ventures, and existing angels. New investors include MaC Venture Capital, Collab Capital, Act One Ventures, Animal Capital, BAG Collective, Rackhouse Ventures, Borusan Ventures, Symphony, Vanderbilt University, Scribble Ventures, Fortson VC, and individual investors including Joel Embiid, Malik Monk, and Taijuan Walker. Bluecore says the round was oversubscribed and closed in eight weeks. The speed matters for a company founded in 2026, but it does not compress the engineering and licensing work ahead. Capital can put more hardware and specialists behind the program; it cannot substitute for the evidence those people must produce. A reactor design built around water access. Bluecore's initial design targets about 10 megawatts of electrical output. The company says one unit could supply electricity comparable to the usage of roughly 15,000 homes, operate for years between refueling, and combine with other units when a port or industrial site needs more capacity. Those are design claims, not the measured output of an operating Bluecore reactor. The barge is central to the commercial thesis. A reactor assembled near a shipyard could eventually be moved to a suitable coastal location, positioned offshore, and connected to land by subsea cable. In principle, that model brings generation closer to ports, data centers, and industrial loads while using established marine construction and logistics capabilities. Water access also creates additional obligations. The system must satisfy nuclear safety, vessel safety, offshore operations, security, emergency planning, grid interconnection, environmental review, and questions about which institution controls each part of the asset. The project only becomes useful when those separate regimes meet in a design that regulators, classification bodies, port operators, and customers can accept. The Long Beach prototype is a test, not a reactor. Bluecore's current barge provides a physical place to exercise the non-nuclear systems before fuel enters the program. A local report on the Long Beach site describes an electrically heated prototype without nuclear fuel or radioactivity. That distinction keeps the current milestone legible: Bluecore has started an important hardware program, but it does not have an operating power reactor. Founder and CEO Kofi Asante is leading a team with experience across reactor design, licensing, controls, quality, supply chains, and marine systems. The company's public team page identifies Kwadwo Adutwum in nuclear core design, Megan Moyette in licensing and safety, Andrew Phillips in controls, William Zimmer in quality and supply chain, and Jordan Diggs in recruiting. Bluecore does not publicly list a chief technology officer. The Seed is meant to expand that group and move more of the system from concept into tested hardware. It will also support a fuel order, according to the company. Fuel procurement is consequential, but an order would not itself authorize loading, operation, or commercial deployment. Regulatory coordination has begun, but no license exists. Bluecore says it has begun formal engagement with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Coast Guard. The NRC's maritime nuclear applications program explains how the agencies are coordinating their respective authorities for civilian maritime nuclear technology. Early engagement can identify design and jurisdictional questions before a formal application, but it is not a license or approval. The federal interest around Long Beach is broader than Bluecore. The U.S. Maritime Administration and the Port of Long Beach signed a memorandum of cooperation to study advanced nuclear uses that may include small modular reactors, microgrids, shore power, and vessel propulsion. That agreement is relevant context for the port, not a contract with Bluecore and not permission for the company to operate a reactor. Bluecore has not announced a named customer, power-purchase agreement, revenue figure, valuation, order book, commercial license, or deployment date. Reporting indicates that the company expects several years of development before a fueled system could operate. Any schedule will depend on engineering results, regulator requirements, fuel availability, maritime classification, site approvals, and customer commitments. What this Seed round now has to prove. The first proof is technical: the non-fueled prototype must produce useful data about controls, sensors, thermal behavior, water systems, maintenance, and the realities of building on a marine platform. The second is institutional: those results must arrive in forms that support design reviews, classification, licensing, port planning, and eventual customer diligence. The third proof is economic. Bluecore's model depends on manufacturing compact units at a cost and pace that can compete with other sources of firm power, then operating them within demanding nuclear and maritime rules. The company has not disclosed unit economics, contracted demand, expected power prices, or independently validated construction timelines. At Long Beach, the work now moves through sensors, fuel orders, design reviews, classification files, and the institutional patience required to make each handoff credible. Bluecore's barge may be the visible object, but the next chapter will be written in the evidence that lets the port, regulators, and eventual customers decide what can safely come aboard.

Barge reactor startup Bluecore banks $50M seed from Silverton. Bluecore Energy raised a $50M seed led by Silverton Partners to engineer and license its floating nuclear reactors. Last updated: September 9, 2026 5:56 am Seven weeks after its launch round, the startup putting small nuclear reactors on barges has banked five times as much again. Bluecore Energy's $50M seed will pay for engineering, testing and licensing of its first floating system, with the cash arriving just as the company starts formal talks with US regulators. Silverton Partners led the round. Slauson & Co., Harlem Capital, Precursor Ventures and other early backers returned, joined by MaC Ventures, Collab Capital and a group of new investors. Backers have now put $60M into the company founded by Kofi Asante, a former Uber Freight employee. Its first barge-borne plant is designed to produce about 10 megawatts around the clock and run for years between refuelings. Bluecore sees ports, coastal industry and AI data centers as the customers, with cargo ships a later ambition. Regulators are already in the loop. Since July, Bluecore has secured its first barge and opened engagement with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Coast Guard, and it is building a non-fueled reactor prototype at the Port of Long Beach to validate monitoring, sensor and control systems. Light-water reactors have powered the US grid for decades, so the technology is proven. The hard part is packaging one for a moving maritime platform and clearing a new licensing path, which is why the team leans on former Navy nuclear submarine officers and engineers from SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, Toyota and Rivian.