Dr. Salaheddin Malkawi and Mr. Abdallah Abdallat from Jordan visited NSSPI from March 21-25 to discuss nuclear security culture training and education. Jordan is building its first nuclear reactor, the Jordan Research and Training Reactor (JRTR), at the Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST). Abdallat is the security manager of the Nuclear Security Department JRTR and Dr. Malkawi is the chairman of the Department of Nuclear Engineering at JUST and is also the deputy director of the recently formed Jordan Nuclear Power Company.
The main objective of the visit was to develop materials for a Train-the-Trainer event being planned on nuclear security culture for the JRTR staff of the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC). NSSPI subject matter experts Sunil Chirayath, Claudio Gariazzo, and Craig Marianno, along with strong support from Adriane Littlefield of Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), presented and discussed the nuclear security teaching materials available both at NSSPI and SNL. These discussions with the Jordanian visitors resulted in the successful creation of a course outline and syllabus for the nuclear security culture course for the JRTR Staff.
While in College Station, the Jordanian visitors also toured the Texas A&M TRIGA research reactor at the Nuclear Science Center, as well as various laboratories in the Texas A&M Department of Nuclear Engineering. The visit was sponsored by the US Department of State’s Partnership for Nuclear Security and coordinated by CRDF-Global.