It’s official – the two countries signed the cooperation deal yesterday. Expected to cost $10bn, the 2,000MW plant will have two pressurised water reactors of the VVER variety, first developed in the former Soviet Union.
"We will use all the experience accumulated by us to build the most modern and safest nuclear power plant," said Sergey Kirienko, director general of Russia’s state-owned nuclear power company, Rosatom.
Rosatom began work on site evaluations and feasibility studies in September last year.
The deal, signed by Rosatom and the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC), envisages the construction of the plant at Amra in the north of the kingdom by 2022.
"The Russian technology we chose in a very competitive process suits Jordan’s needs in terms of power generation and the ability to produce electricity at very competitive prices," Khaled Toukan, chairman of JAEC, told a news conference.
In a statement, Rosatom said water supply for the plant would be the "paramount issue".
Jordan is one of the world’s countries most dependent on other countries for power: it imports approximately 96% of its energy.
The deal signed yesterday envisages the establishment of a new company that will be the customer, operator and owner of the new plant, and the owner of the power it generates.
Photograph: It may look like this: The control room of Unit 5 of Russia’s Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant, using VVER-1000 reactors, in 2009 (Yovko Lambrev/Wikimedia Commons)
