TEES Nuclear Security Science and Policy Institute (NSSPI) Director Dr. Sunil Chirayath traveled to Amman, Jordan from August 14 to 18 to facilitate a train-the-trainer workshop in nuclear security aimed at raising awareness among both the technical and administration staff members of the new Jordan Research and Training Reactor (JRTR). The JRTR is a research reactor on the campus of the Jordan University of Science and Technology intended to educate the upcoming generation of nuclear engineers and scientists in Jordan, as well as to produce radioisotopes. This workshop follows from a visit that two of the trainers, Dr. Salaheddin Malkawi of the Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST) and Mr. Abdallah Abdallat of the JRTR, made to NSSPI in April of this year to discuss a curriculum for nuclear security work force training for JRTR staff.
The first day of the workshop was focused on training the trainers, after which the trainers conducted a pilot nuclear security certificate course for a group of administrative and technical employees of JRTR. During the pilot course, Chirayath and Adriane Littlefield from Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) were on hand to shadow the instructors and provide guidance, where necessary. NSSPI worked with SNL and JUST to develop the training materials on nuclear security, insider threats, human reliability programs, and nuclear security culture that constituted the core of the certificate curriculum. The workshop also included a tabletop exercise devised by NSSPI, which was completed by the JRTR participants.
The trainers who were trained at this workshop were drawn from JUST, the JRTR, the Gendarmerie, the Energy, Minerals, and Resources Commission (EMRC), and the Middle East Scientific Institute for Security (MESIS). This new set of trainers will repeat the pilot course for the remaining JRTR employees.
