A URANIUM export deal was ready to be signed between Australia and Iran in late 1978 just months before the violent Islamic revolution forced the Shah of Iran to flee the nation.

Cabinet documents released by the National Archives of Australia reveal that a uranium export agreement was ready to be signed with Iran in September 1978 but was later dumped after signs of political volatility that culminated in the bloody revolution in January 1979.

The agreement was aimed at providing uranium to Iran strictly for a series of planned nuclear power plants under a program of modernisation being undertaken by Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.

The deal was to mirror similar uranium export agreements Australia had made with other nations including the Philippines and Finland at that time.

Iran also asked that intelligence on the use of uranium and nuclear energy be shared between the two nations under "most favoured nation treatment".

"At Iran's request, the draft agreement includes an article on co-operation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy including research and training, the exchange of unclassified information and projects of mutual interest," the submission states.

The cabinet submission, which included a completed copy of the treaty ready to be signed by both parties, also makes reference to Iran's secret nuclear co-operation deal with the United States under which the US would help supply nuclear technology for the establishment of Iranian plants.

"This formulation closely follows the formulation of the recently concluded, but still confidential, United States/Iran nuclear co-operation agreement," it states.

Both deals were abandoned with the overthrow of the shah in January 1979. Then foreign minister Andrew Peacock has told The Age that he and the Government were "stunned" by the course of events in Iran, signalling, but not naming, intelligence failures by the US and Britain in the lead-up to the revolution.

"We were quite surprised because some of the countries from which we obtained information on Iran did not see this coming either. It might have been '79 when I reached my absolute point of disgust because there were people I actually knew at ministerial level who were just arrested and 48 hours later killed," Mr Peacock said.

Throughout 1978 the issue of uranium exports and mining dogged the Fraser government, with unions refusing to handle uranium and protests being staged over the proposed Ranger and Jabiluka uranium mines in the Northern Territory.