Blue Energy

In the 1960s, nuclear fission seemed poised to dominate the energy industry. But sixty years later, nuclear energy's expansion has stalled at 19% of U.S. electricity production. Burdened by the complexity of on-site, decade-long, multi-billion dollar mega-projects, nuclear has fallen short of its potential as an abundant source of clean and reliable electricity. While there have been exciting advancements in nuclear reactor technology, reactors make up less than 10% of the cost of nuclear power plants; over 90% of the cost comes from construction and regulatory challenges in the rest of the plant. “The reactor itself could be free, and the industry would still struggle to make the plant cost competitive,” says Jake Jurewicz.

With roots in MIT’s nuclear science and engineering department, Blue Energy is commercializing an innovative, modular, reactor-agnostic power plant architecture to house the next generation of nuclear reactors. Blue Energy’s power plants are designed for centralized shipyard manufacturing, to dramatically reduce the capital costs from $10K/kW to $2K/kW, and shrink build times from 10 years to 2 years. Blue Energy’s plant architecture enforces a clear divide between the nuclear and non-nuclear systems, allowing the vast majority of the plant to be manufactured on fixed-cost contracts in commercial, non-nuclear, shipyards. The reactor building itself leverages seabed XL-monopiles, adapted from offshore wind turbine foundations, and produced in highly automated fabrication lines. The entire plant can be centrally manufactured, and then delivered via major waterways for installation at its operating location. “Blue Energy is addressing the biggest obstacles to wide adoption of nuclear power: money and time,” says Jurewicz, Founder and CEO of Blue Energy. “Using the traditional approach, it takes thousands of workers several years to construct nuclear power plants on site. We’ve designed a modular plant that can be fully prefabricated centrally in existing shipyards, and transported to its operating location. By radically rethinking existing plant architectures, we are reducing build times and costs, making nuclear power competitive with fossil fuels and renewables.”

Blue Energy’s plant design taps into the latest industry advances in passive safety. The newest small modular light water reactors are passively cooled and walk-away safe, meaning they remain safe without human intervention even in a total station blackout. But in order to achieve this, many of the reactor designs require an enormous man-made pool, or additional reservoirs located above the reactor core—to guarantee access to cooling water in an accident. These can be complicated to engineer and expensive to construct in order to meet modern aircraft impact and earthquake safety requirements. Blue Energy’s design puts the nuclear reactor inside large monopiles installed in large bodies of water, such that the reactor building always has access to enormous reservoirs of cooling water, even in an extreme event. Additionally, by placing the reactor below the water line, the water itself provides aircraft impact and additional physical protection, providing further safety to the plant. “With this offshore form factor we are capitalizing on all the advantages of centralized manufacturing and putting nuclear on a learning curve—while also keeping it safe,” says Jurewicz.

Speed to market is a critical advantage of Blue Energy’s approach. The AI datacenter and manufacturing boom has further emphasized the urgency of demand for reliable, clean electricity in the U.S. and the world. In its 2024 report on pathways to the commercialization of advanced nuclear, the U.S. Department of Energy emphasized the perils of delay: “Waiting until the mid-2030s to deploy new nuclear at scale could lead to missing decarbonization targets,” and require 50% more capital. “We designed our power plants to be manufactured today, by shipyards that already exist, utilizing mature supply chains,” says Matt Slotkin, Founder and COO. And by partnering with existing reactor vendors, Blue Energy will leverage their regulatory progress, accelerating the time to market for their innovative, offshore power plants.

The overall combination—shipyard manufacturing, a novel architecture, and pre-certified reactors—will allow Blue Energy to drastically speed up the timelines to begin supplying clean electricity to the grid and industrial users. Their goal is nuclear power plants that are ultimately competitive with fossil fuels and renewables, while offering firm, price-stable, abundant power. “We haven’t designed our nuclear plant only for the banker, only for the neighbor, or only for the regulator,” says Jurewicz. ”We’ve designed a plant that satisfies all of them—that is cheaper, safer, and can be mass-produced from existing supply chains.”