AMMAN - Jordan and South Korea have pledged to cooperate on nuclear regulatory issues as part of an agreement signed on Saturday.

Under the agreement between the Jordan Nuclear Regulatory Commission (JNRC) and the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS), Jordan and South Korea will work closely on safety issues related to nuclear facilities and activities.

The agreement, signed by KINS President Choul-Ho Yun and JNRC Director General Jamal Sharaf, calls for regulating nuclear reactors and nuclear research as well as drafting legislation governing the preparatory stages of establishing the Kingdom’s first nuclear reactor.

In addition to sharing reports of incidents during the construction and operation of nuclear facilities, the two sides will also disclose the results of research, tests or inspections with safety implications, according to the agreement, made available to The Jordan Times.

The deal also paves the way for joint programmes and projects in safety research and development as well as joint workshops to boost expertise exchange, according to the JNRC.

The accord, which falls within the framework of the nuclear cooperation agreement signed by the two countries in 2008, comes ahead of the construction of a nuclear research reactor by a Korean technology supplier.

A South Korean consortium is slated to build an open-pool 5-megawatt (MW) research reactor, upgradeable to 10MW, as part of a national technology and training centre at the Jordan University of Science and Technology near Irbid.

Construction work on the plant is expected to start next month, with an 18-month period devoted to environmental and seismic feasibility studies.

The reactor, which will have the potential to produce 10 times the amount of radioisotopes currently used in Jordan, is expected to be operational by 2015.

Jordan’s peaceful nuclear programme, which aims to reduce the country’s dependence on energy imports, entails the construction of a 1,000MW nuclear reactor by the end of the decade.