Pejman Jamshidi, deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) told Fars news agency on 7 May that Iran is planning to build a nuclear plant using domestic knowledge and that planning for the project is underway.

Jamshidi said Iran possesses the full cycle of nuclear fuel production, and this cycle has been fully localised from the stage of raw materials discovery to the treatment of nuclear waste. He pointed out that Iran is currently producing 20 types of radioactive drugs and supplies them to treatment centres at home, and is one of the main countries exporting such drugs. Jamshidi revealed plans to build a large facility for the production of radioactive drugs to meet domestic need and increase exports by the end of the next Iranian year.

In April, AEOI head Mohammad Eslami unveiled a Comprehensive Strategic Document of Iran’s Nuclear Industry which envisages the generation of 10,000MW of nuclear electricity. He wrote on his twitter page the plan also included construction of a 360MWe power plant in Darkhovin, which would be built by Iranian scientists.