The three technologies, officially short-listed by the commission earlier this week, are Canadian AECL’s Enhanced CANDU6 reactor, the AES-92 VVER-100 reactor by the Russian firm Atomstroyexport and the ATMEA1 reactor by a French-Japanese consortium comprising AREVA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
The three vendors were selected from seven international suppliers who vied for the project earlier this year and were technically and economically vetted by the JAEC and its consultant WorleyParsons. The commission and WorleyParsons will be involved in discussions as of June with the three suppliers in what is expected to be a year-long process to select the final bidder for negotiations on the design and construction of the plant, according to the JAEC. The plant, slated to be a 1000-megawatt Generation III reactor with a closed loop cooling cycle, is to be set up 25 kilometers outside the Red Sea port of Aqaba and several kilometers inland.
