Jordan and South Korea on Tuesday signed an agreement for the construction of a research-purpose nuclear reactor costing 130 million dollars, a government statement said. The agreement was concluded between the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC) and a South Korean consortium comprising the Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) and the Daewoo Engineering and Construction group.
The signing ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Samir Rifai and the visiting South Korean Minister of Education, Science and Technology Ahn Myong-man. In addition to the construction of a 5-megawatt reactor, the accord provides for the setting up of a nuclear educational and training centre at JUST, the JAEC's chairman Khalid Touqan said.
Touqan said that the reactor, the capacity of which is to be upgraded to 10 megawatts at a later stage, would be fully commissioned within five years and would pave the way for building a nuclear power plant by 2017. The project will be financed by 60 million dollars from the JAEC and 70 million dollars from a soft loan extended to Jordan by the South Korean government, he said.