Blue Energy raises $380M to build nuclear reactors in shipyards

Blue Energy has secured $380 million in a funding round split between equity and debt to shift nuclear reactor construction from on-site builds to a shipyard environment. The financing round was led by VXI Capital, with participation from At One Ventures, Engine Ventures, and Tamarack Global. Rather than designing a new reactor, the company is focusing on rethinking how reactors and power plants are built to address the industry’s chronic cost and schedule issues. By moving the bulk of specialized construction to a shipyard, Blue Energy hopes the more controlled environment will minimize on-site construction, centralize assembly, and eventually pave the way to automation and greater cost savings.

The company’s co-founder and CEO, Jake Jurewicz, drew inspiration for this manufacturing-style approach from the processes used by Venture Global to build export terminals for liquefied natural gas (LNG). After learning about the method from a friend at the company, Jurewicz realized that prefabricating components in a shipyard could cut construction schedules in half. He notes that light water reactors—the most common type of nuclear power technology, which was originally invented for nuclear submarines—have a historical precedent of being prefabricated in shipyard contexts. Centralizing this work in a shipyard allows the company to transition away from manual welding toward automated manufacturing.

Once completed, the reactors will be transported to installation sites via barge. While this limits locations, Jurewicz points out that the majority of population and load growth is occurring near waterways. This transport method allows the company to reach deep into the U.S., Europe, Africa, and Asia using river networks. Blue Energy’s first power plant is a 1.5 gigawatt project in Texas, with construction slated to begin later this year. The company’s approach has already attracted interest from financial institutions; Blue Energy has engaged with large infrastructure funds and banks, including three major project financing banks that have responded to its Request for Proposal (RFP). According to Jurewicz, this response serves as a strong indicator that financial institutions view the proposal as project financeable.

Why it matters

Blue Energy is attempting to solve the nuclear industry’s problem of unpredictable construction costs and schedules by moving the bulk of specialized construction to a shipyard environment, a shift that could fundamentally change how grid-scale power—energy projects large enough to provide power to the electrical grid—is deployed.

“This is the crux of the issue with nuclear. It’s not the technology; it is how do we get the construction costs and the construction schedule down and to a place where it’s predictable,” said Jurewicz, co-founder and CEO of Blue Energy.