AMMAN -- His Majesty King Abdullah on Monday stressed that Jordan will be a model in using nuclear power for peaceful purposes by applying the highest safety standards in its atomic energy programme.
At a meeting with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano, the King said that Jordan is taking to heart the lessons learned from the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi reactor in Japan earlier this year, stressing that the Kingdom is in favour of IAEA member states committing to nuclear safety criteria, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.
King Abdullah and Amano discussed cooperation between Jordan and the agency in the fields of nuclear security and safety measures.
The Monarch also expressed Jordan's support for a special forum the IAEA plans to hold next month on the establishment of a Middle East nuclear weapons free zone, saying that failure to achieve this goal will hamper peace and stability in the region as well as economic progress, Petra said.
The IAEA chief, who arrived in the Kingdom on Sunday, also held separate meetings with Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit, Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, Senate President Taher Masri and Lower House Speaker Faisal Fayez, according to Petra.
Later in the day, Amano and Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Khaled Toukan met with representatives of local media outlets to talk about Jordan's nuclear programme.
Toukan said that during the talks with the IAEA chief, he briefed him and the accompanying delegation on the programme's three components, which include the construction of a nuclear power plant, the establishment of a research station at the Jordan University of Science and Technology, and uranium mining.
Indicating that Jordan is an important partner of the IAEA, Amano said the aim of his visit was to hold discussions with decision makers in the Kingdom and visit the proposed site of the reactor, expressing the agency's support for the project as every country in the world is entitled to implement nuclear programmes for peaceful purposes as long as they comply with international safety standards and regulations.
Referring to the accident at Fukushima in Japan, he said that while some people have said it marked the end of nuclear power, the agency's projections indicate that the number of nuclear plants in the world, currently 432, will increase by between 90 and 350 by 2030.
While there may be a slowdown in implementation of nuclear power projects in certain countries such as Germany, Belgium and Switzerland, Amano stressed that many countries are looking at nuclear power as an energy alternative, pointing to China, Brazil, the US, France, Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as well as Turkey, as countries actively pursuing the technology.
Asked what policy makers in the energy sector will do to allay the fears of people who oppose the project due to safety and environmental concerns, Toukan said the government will be transparent with the public and will implement international safety standards to ensure the project is safe.
"Jordan is part of a region that has entered the nuclear era and we have to be among the players in this field," he added, indicating that the UAE has signed contracts to set up four nuclear plants while Turkey has also embarked on a nuclear energy programme.
In response to a question about international interference in Jordan's nuclear plans, particularly by Israel, the minister said no country has the right to interfere in the Kingdom's programme.
© Jordan Times 2011
