PM inaugurates Jordan Research and Training Reactor

AMMAN — Deputising for His Majesty King Abdullah, Prime Minister Hani Mulki on Wednesday inaugurated the Jordan Research and Training Reactor (JRTR), constructed on the Jordan University for Science and Technology campus.

Its capabilities “will enhance nuclear infrastructure in Jordan to be a focal point in the region as a nuclear research hub and a centre” for the development of human resources, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

The project contains, in addition to the reactor — whose capacity is 5 megawatts — service buildings, a training centre and a radioactive waste treatment facility. 

The facilities also include radioisotope production hot cells to be used in medical applications, neutron activation analysis for material and forensic medicine analysis, beam ports and a thermal column. 

They will be utilised for research, as well as performing three-dimensional neutron radiography using the neutron imaging technique.

The JRTR aims at building Jordan’s nuclear technology experience through training a new generation of scientists and nuclear engineers from Jordan and the Arab countries, as well as providing services to  the health, agriculture and industrial sectors, Petra reported.

HRH Princess Sumaya, president of the Royal Scientific Society, former prime minister Marouf Bakhit and several ministers attended the inauguration ceremony. 

Mulki toured the facility and checked on the main control room, the reactor’s cooling pool, the test hall and the hot cell bank.

During the ceremony, the attendees watched a video on the phases of building the reactor, which started in 2010, and the safety measures taken in accordance with international standards.