SEOUL, Jan 14, 2010 (AFP) - South Korea has agreed to build Jordan's first atomic research reactor, just two weeks after winning a landmark 20.4 billion dollar deal in the United Arab Emirates, officials said Thursday.
The contract, estimated at 200 billion won (178 million dollars), is to build a five megawatt reactor in Jordan by 2014, the South Korean science ministry said.
The consortium that won the deal is led by the state-run Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute and Daewoo Engineering and Construction.
Jordan will use the reactor for scientific research before building its own nuclear power plants, the ministry said.
The deal came two weeks after another South Korean consortium led by state utility Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO) landed a contract to build four nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates.
The KEPCO consortium won the deal against competition from two rival groups that included a consortium of French companies and another composed of the US company General Electric and Japan's Hitachi.
South Korea, with few natural energy sources, operates 20 commercial reactors to provide 40 percent of its electricity needs.
