South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT said on May 11 it selected Yoon Hoon (윤훈), a project manager at KEPCO Engineering & Construction's Nuclear Business Division, and Choi Jae-hoon (최재훈), head of the Noahnx research institute, as May winners of the Korea Engineer Award.

The Korea Engineer Award is a programme that selects engineers who contribute to technical workplaces each month and presents a deputy prime minister-and-minister award and prize money of 5 million won.

Yoon improved nuclear plant piping damage assessments that had relied on manual work based on 2D drawings by developing 3D-based software called ToSPACE. By entering inspection results, it can predict and assess defect probabilities in real time, and cut work time by 80 percent. It was exported to the Barakah nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates for 2 billion won and won domestic orders of more than 5 billion won.

Choi developed a 320-kHz ultrasound nozzle, surpassing the 180 kHz frequency of existing overseas equipment, and applied it to medical stent coating equipment. It reduced droplet size by 40 percent versus existing equipment and increased coating uniformity by more than 30 percent. As of 2023, Noahnx exported about $2.6 million worth, or about 3.8 billion won, to the United States, Germany and China, among others.

Yoon said, "I will contribute to enhancing the competitiveness of South Korea's nuclear power technology by taking the lead in developing key technologies that strengthen the safety of nuclear power facilities."

Choi said, "Based on the technological capabilities we have accumulated, I will devote myself to developing innovative process technologies that solidify the domestic medical device industry ecosystem and enhance global competitiveness."