Jordan Times
Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Touqan says IAEA team to visit Jordan

By Khalid Neimat

AMMAN — The government on Monday said a UN nuclear watchdog team is expected to visit Jordan by the end of this month for talks on developing atomic energy for peaceful use.

“A delegation of the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] will visit Jordan by the end of this month for talks on ways to establish two nuclear reactors, one for research and the other for energy,” Minister of Education, Higher Education and Scientific Research Khalid Touqan told reporters at a weekly presser.

IAEA regulations state that a developing country needs between 10-12 years to establish its first power reactor from the inception of the project.

Touqan said the visit will be a follow-up on an April trip by IAEA chief Mohammad Al Baradei, who said the agency was ready to help the country acquire nuclear energy for peaceful use.

Jordan is a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and other international protocols governing the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

The government is negotiating with the US, Canada and the EU to sign deals on nuclear cooperation and develop Jordanian technical expertise, he added.

Last month, deputies passed legislation to authorise the use of nuclear energy in the production of electricity and the desalination of water to meet growing demand.

Jordan is one of the 10 poorest countries in the world in terms of water resources, with a deficit exceeding 500 million cubic metres a year.

Officials told Agence France-Presse the Kingdom, which currently depends on imports for 95 per cent of its energy needs, plans to bring a first nuclear power station into operation by 2015.

Touqan said Jordan wanted to extract 140,000 tonnes of uranium necessary for the plants from an estimated 1.2 billion tonnes of phosphate reserves.