A Japan-France engineering consortium bidding for Jordan's atomic power plant project has little chance of winning if the Diet doesn't approve a bilateral nuclear cooperation pact by the end of this year, Jordan's energy and mineral resources minister said.
Jordan will not be able to award construction of its first nuclear plant to the alliance of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and France's Areva SA over two competing bidders from Russia and Canada without a ratified agreement, energy minister Khaled Touqan said Sunday.
Jordan and Japan signed a nuclear cooperation pact last year, but the ratification of the Japanese side has been postponed since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which triggered the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant.
A ratified accord will allow nuclear power technologies and related equipment to be exported. The Mitsubishi-Areva group is better positioned for the bid because it has the latest reactor technologies, Touqan said.