The idea had been swirling in the currents of Kofi Asante’s brainwaves while he worked at an electric ship company as he observed the huge power needs of the Port of Long Beach, California , one of the nation’s busiest.

Indeed, the growing demand for clean power in the port “grew louder and louder,” in his head, Asante recalled in an interview.

The idea grew so loud, in January Asante quit his job and started Bluecore Energy, leveraged relationships he’d built at the port and financial community, raised some money, hired a talented team, bought a 185-foot barge and built a small modular light- water nuclear reactor on it to generate some of that needed power.

In July, Bluecore Energy and the Port of Long Beach signed an agreement making it the first small modular reactor company to establish its headquarters inside a major U.S. port.

But that’s not the only “first” associated with Bluecore Energy. Asante, himself, believes he represents a bit of human history.

“I'm the first black nuclear founder, and I care very deeply about my community and about other communities as well,” asserted Asante. “Even though I'm the first, I want there to be thousands and thousands of more black and brown and women founders who are also raising capital for meaningful, impactful businesses.”

Bluecore came out of stealth in July after raising $10 million in what it describes as an oversubscribed pre-seed round financing, led by Slauson & Co . with participation from Chris Larsen, co-founder of Ripple, Kevin Hart–founded Hartbeat Ventures , and other investors.

The company is now attracting what Asante described as “a lot of interest and a lot of excitement from investors.”

It’s certainly attracted the interest of Dr. Noel Hacegaba, the Port of Long Beach CEO, who launched a vision last January to expand the port’s capabilities using clean energy.

“We're planning to double our container volumes by 2050,” Hacegaba said in an interview. “We aspire to become the world's first zero emissions port. So when you think about how much power we're going to need, our power demand is only going in one direction, up, as we electrify cargo equipment and work toward doubling our container volumes by 2050.”

Bluecore was not chosen by the port through a competitive process, but rather as the company came to the port’s attention when it sought to lease some space, Hacegaba explained.

“Their approach, a small modular reactor mounted on a barge, was novel enough that I wanted to give it room to develop here,” he said.

So now, in addition to being a port tenant using the space to assemble, test and store floating reactor modules, Bluecore will also serve as a resource to support a memorandum of cooperation signed in July between the Port of Long Beach and the U.S. Maritime Administration.

“It's about preparing safety protocols, infrastructure, and regulatory readiness for small modular reactor technology as it matures,” said Hacegaba. “Having Bluecore here and partnering with MARAD gives us a seat at the table as these protocols get written, and these protocols will shape how ports across the country and likely worldwide will handle this technology.”

Bluecore’s nuclear small module reactors can generate what Asante describes as enough power to energize 15,000 homes, or about 10 megawatts. Since they’re modular, more than one can be mounted on a single barge to produce even more power, Asante explained.

Beyond direct port power requirements, Asante says he receives inquiries almost every week from AI data centers about using Bluecore’s floating nuclear power generators .

“AI data centers are traditionally challenged by needing electricity, so power, and then they also need water, and that water will either and electricity might come from the communities around them, which then creates the friction,” he said. “For us, we can go out into the ocean, out into the water. You have infinite amount of water available to you, and we can provide you with direct electricity and electrons.”

Asante readily admits Bluecore did not invent small modular nuclear reactors using “light” or ordinary water, and is not the only company using them.

He points out the U.S. Navy has used light-water reactors to power submarines and ships for at least 70 years and they generate about 20 percent of the electricity in the U.S.

London UK-based Core Power is working on ship-based power plants using small modular nuclear reactors generating about 300 megawatts of power.

Responding to a request for information from the U.S. Maritime Administration, in August, Core Power outlined what it called "Project Pathfinder," a "time-limited federally supported and commercially led program to design, build and place into regular service a U.S.-flagged nuclear-powered commercial ship."

Thinking about his role in creating Bluecore Energy as a pioneering person of color, Asante believes it’s not just about a business opportunity, declaring, “providing access to clean energy, I think should be a human right, and it should be across the board for everybody, all different backgrounds.”