A feasibility study on the construction of NPPs in Jordan will be prepared in the first half of 2017, Sergey Kirienko, director general of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom told reporters on 3 September at the second Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostock. Russia and Jordan signed an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the construction and operation of two 1,000MWe VVER units at Az-Zarqa in central Jordan in March 2015. "The feasibility study will provide answers to questions about financing the project," Kirienko said.
The $10bn project will be funded with Russia and Jordan each taking 30%. Negotiations are under way on securing the remaining funding and China has expressed interest. Jordan Atomic Energy Commission chairman Khaled Toukan said he first NPP would be operating by 2025 if sufficient financing is secured. As well as China, talks are underway with German, Czech and Japanese companies among others to supply turbines and electrical systems for the power plant and "things are going well", he told the Jordan Times.
Jordan's first nuclear reactor, the Jordan Research and Training Reactor, is being built at the Jordan University for Science and Technology by a consortium led by the Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute with Daewoo. The 5MWt reactor is based on version of Korea's 30MWt Hanaro design, and is expected to start up in 2016 or 2017.