By DPA
Amman : Jordan’s King Abdullah II has urged an ad hoc panel to “speed up” the implementation of a nuclear programme to help the country come to grips with its soaring energy bill.
“The king presided over a meeting of the Higher Committee of the Nuclear Energy Strategy and urged the panel to speed up the implementation of the Jordanian nuclear programme,” a royal court statement said Sunday.
“The energy issue is one of the most important challenges facing Jordan that should be addressed in terms of long-term solutions,” the monarch was quoted as saying.
Committee member and Minister of Higher Education Khalid Touqan expected nuclear energy to represent 30 percent of Jordan’s total energy resources by the year 2030.
He said that nuclear energy would be used mainly in power generation and water desalination and that local uranium deposits would be used in the enrichment process.
Touqan stressed the issue of foreign financing as a key element for a successful Jordanian nuclear programme to avert new burdens for the treasury.
Preliminary studies put the cost of the nuclear programme at about $1 billion, which should be guaranteed from donor countries.
Earlier this year, King Abdullah made it clear that Iran’s adamant adherence to the development of peaceful nuclear capabilities should prompt Arab countries to possess their own nuclear programmes.