Awards were handed out to 30 nuclear industry veterans from 14 countries for their work and contribution to major industry challenges. Among the award recipients were representatives of Abkhazia, Belarus, Hungary, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Finland, Estonia and the Czech Republic. With direct involvement of engineers from the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation, these countries have built over 30 Russian-designed commercial reactors, over 20 research reactors and carried out large-scale uranium mining and fuel fabrication projects.