Global Security Newswire

China agreed Monday to help Jordan enrich uranium and conduct other nuclear activities, boosting the Middle Eastern nation's efforts to gain international support for its nuclear power goals, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Oct. 24).

"China is going to assist Jordan in mining and enriching uranium as well as training and studies related to building a nuclear station," said Khaled Tukan, head of the Jordanian Atomic Energy Commission.

Jordan aims to complete its first nuclear power plant by 2015 and to fuel it with uranium recovered from the nation's estimated reserves of 130,000 metric tons, AFP reported (Agence France-Presse/Google News, Nov. 25).

Officials signed two agreements Monday, one covering the mining and enrichment support, the other providing a Chinese subcritical assembly to the Jordan University of Science and Technology to train the nation's nuclear technicians.

"It looks like a research reactor in all its features and functions, but it does not generate nuclear energy," said university President Wajih Owais (Jordan Times, Nov. 25).

Growing Middle Eastern interest in nuclear power has alarmed some nuclear-weapon proliferation experts (see GSN, Nov. 17).

"They say they want civilian programs for energy purposes and there is logic to that, but I think it's clearly linked to Iran's nuclear program," said Emily Landau of Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies. "If Iran becomes a nuclear state, this is an additional dimension to the gravity of the situation. It's not only the fact that Iran will become a much stronger hegemony in the region, but we're very likely to see pressure for more nuclear weapons programs in the Middle East" (Jerusalem Post, Nov. 25).