Osegi
Startups·2 min read

Neurogos Wins Atomic NEST Demo Day with SMR Design Platform

Neurogos took the top prize at Korea's Atomic NEST demo day for a platform that unifies small modular reactor design, safety analysis and licensing data in one place.

Startup founders and judges on stage at the fifth Atomic NEST demo day for nuclear startups in Daejeon, South Korea.
Image: 스타트업 생태계의 모든 것 \'플래텀(Platum)\'
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Neurogos, a South Korean startup that manages small modular reactor (SMR) design information on a single platform, won the grand prize at the fifth Atomic NEST demo day. The Korea Nuclear Cooperation Foundation and deep-tech accelerator Bluepoint Partners held the event on 4 November at TIPS Town in Daejeon. Korea Nuclear Maintenance Technology took the excellence award.

One reference for scattered data

An SMR is smaller than a conventional large reactor and is built in modules at a factory before installation. During development, design, safety analysis and licensing documents end up spread across several organizations. Neurogos ties that information to a single standard, so teams can immediately trace which parts are affected when a design changes. Judge Yeom Hak-gi, a professor at Kyung Hee University, said the idea looks at the whole life cycle of a nuclear plant rather than staying with individual technologies.

Korea Nuclear Maintenance Technology presented a maintenance method for steam generator tubes, the thousands of tubes that must be inspected periodically. The company is led by CEO Park Ki-tae, who has 38 years in the nuclear field. Both winners receive a chance at Bluepoint's regular investment review and a TIPS recommendation. Judges weighed commercialization speed and links to the nuclear industry, and the score gaps between teams were small.

Nuclear tech beyond power plants

Sixteen teams applied, and six reached the final, three each in the startup and pre-startup tracks. S-Welding presented a commercial model for printed circuit heat exchangers that use high-temperature nuclear heat. The pre-startup finalists were Thermicron (3D metal-printed heat dissipation), INGEOL Propulsion (plasma electric propulsion for micro-satellites) and RDNX (radiopharmaceutical evaluation). The lineup shows nuclear technology spreading into space propulsion, medicine and data center cooling.

Atomic NEST began as an idea contest for university students. Since its third edition in 2023, when Bluepoint joined the operation, startups less than three years old can also take part. Bluepoint-backed alumni Cosmobe and MSILabs (now RX) were later selected for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' Deep Tech TIPS program, which offers up to 1.7 billion won in R&D funding.

Do Woo-dong of the Ministry of Science and ICT said nuclear power is not completed by reactor R&D alone, and that design, analysis, equipment manufacturing, maintenance and safe operation must grow together, which is why technology startups matter more.

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Tags:neurogossmratomic nestbluepoint partnersnuclear startupssouth korea

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