The Jordanian government has received an offer from Russia's Rosatom Corporation for building a research nuclear reactor in the country, dpa quoted Chairman of the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC) Khalid Touqan as saying today. The tender was made under the provisions of the nuclear cooperation agreement which Jordan signed with Russia in Moscow on Friday, Touqan said in an interview with the official Petra news agency. "The importance of the accord stems from the vast Russian experience in the field of nuclear energy that will allow Russian firms, particularly Rosatom, to build nuclear utilities in Jordan," he added. Touqan said that under the accord, Jordan would be sending between 8 and 10 students next year to study nuclear engineering and physics at Russian universities. This is the fifth agreement to be signed by Jordan with nuclear countries for the avowed aim of importing nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, he said. The Jordanian government inked similar agreements over the past year with France, China, Canada and South Korea. Jordan, which imports more than 95 per cent of its energy needs, aspires to drastically trim its energy bill by resorting to peaceful uses of the nuclear energy. The Hashemite Kingdom and other Arab countries have started to show increasing interest in possessing nuclear know-how after Iran pushed ahead adamantly with its nuclear programme.
