Undersecretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) and deputy Chief negotiator in nuclear talks with the world powers Ali Baqeri said Iranian experts have started designing the country's second nuclear power plant in the Southwestern city of Darkhoveyn, Fars News Agency reported.
"The designing and construction of Darkhoveyn power plant is being carried out domestically," Baqeri announced in Tehran on Sunday.
He underlined that all designing and construction works of the power plant are done under the full supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Iran is building a 300-megawatt light-water reactor in the Southwestern town of Darkhoveyn.
Iran suffered from an electricity shortage only two years ago that forced the country into adopting a rationing program by scheduling power outages - of up to two hours a day - across both urban and rural areas.
Later, Iranian officials decided to construct additional nuclear power plants to provide for the electricity needs of the country's growing population.
Iran insists that it should continue enriching uranium because it needs to provide fuel to both Darkhoveyn and Bushehr power plants.
Iran's first nuclear power plant has been built by the Russia in the country's Southern port city of Bushehr.
The power plant's utmost power for the generation of electricity is 1,000mw.
Iran signed a deal with Russia in 1995, according to which the plant was originally scheduled for completion in 1999. However, the project was repeatedly delayed by the Russian side due to the intense pressure exerted on Moscow by the United States and its western allies. Russia finally completed physical construction of the plant last summer, but the facility still needed one more year to gradually reach full power generation capacity.
On October 26, 2010, Iran started injecting fuel into the core of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in the initial phase of launching the nuclear reactor.
In 2011 Iran started using 500MW of nuclear-generated electricity, half the nominal capacity of the Bushehr power plant.
Iran held a ceremony in September to mark the preliminary launch of the Bushehr plant.
The facility operates under the full supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).