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China assisting Jordan with February launch of its first
nuclear reactor

AMMAN — Jordan has been been making final preparations for its first nuclear facility.Officials said the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission was working with contractors to launch the Hashemite kingdom’s first nuclear site, deemed a uranium-fueled sub-critical assembly. They identified the facility as a Chinese-based nuclear reactor meant for training and research.

“All experiments can be run on the sub-critical assembly,” Ned Xoubi, a commission member, said. “They will be able to see a real nuclear reactor and how it operates, an important hands-on experience.”

Officials said the reactor would begin operations in February 2011 at the Jordan University of Science and Technology. They said the facility, constructed in cooperation with the China Institute of Atomic Energy, would enable Jordanian engineers and scientists to operate the kingdom’s first nuclear energy reactor by 2017, with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts.

Jordan has sought to procure at least two nuclear reactors, meant to be located in the southern desert. Officials said Amman plans to use the facilities for the production of nuclear fuel.

In an interview with the Jordan Times, Xoubi said Amman has sent its students to European research reactors for nuclear training. He said the sub-critical assembly project would enable the development of a cadre of Jordanian nuclear personnel. The first 18 Jordanian nuclear engineers were scheduled to graduate from the Jordan University of Science and Technology in May 2011.

Xoubi said the sub-critical assembly, employed in the United States for nuclear research in the 1970s, was designed and assembled by Jordan. He said China provided expertise, but did not elaborate.

The Jordan University of Science and Technology, which opened its nuclear engineering department in 2007, was also designated as the site of another nuclear facility. Officials said the university, with 145 students in the faculty, would contain the kingdom’s first nuclear research reactor, built by South Korea and ready for operations in 2015.