Conducts research into military applications of Iran's nuclear program, according to the European Union; listed by the European Union on May 23, 2011 as an entity linked to Iran's proliferation-sensitive nuclear activities or Iran's development of nuclear weapon delivery systems; with some exceptions, European Union member states must freeze all funds and economic resources owned, held or controlled by the listed entity, and prevent funds or economic resources from being made available to it; designated by the Canadian government in 2010 as an entity contributing to Iran's proliferation-sensitive nuclear activities or to its development of chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons or their delivery systems; designation prohibits Canadian parties from providing goods or financial services to the entity or dealing in property held by the entity.

In January-February 2008, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) asked Iran to clarify procurement actions by IAP which could relate to alleged studies concerning the conversion of uranium dioxide (UO2) into uranium tetrafluoride (UF4) (the green salt project), high explosives testing, and the design of a missile re-entry vehicle; in February 2008, the IAEA inquired about an IAP staff member's possible involvement in work on exploding bridgewire (EBW) detonators and procurement attempts for borehole HP (Ge) gamma spectrometers; Iran has stated that the person concerned was not involved in work related to EBWs and that the procurement requests were related to well logging for the oil ministry; the IAEA also inquired about the reasons for inclusion in an IAP employee's curriculum vitae of a Taylor-Sedov equation for the evolving radius of a nuclear explosion ball with photos of the 1945 Trinity test; according to Iran, the scientist involved had been working on dimensional analysis and included references available in open sources in his resume.

Was located at Lavisan-Shian in 2002; research on plasma focus devices; reportedly affiliated with the Iran University of Science and Technology in Tehran; linked to senior Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) scientist Fereidoun Abbasi-Davani, who became head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) in 2011; reportedly a military-owned agency.