JAPAN NUCLEAR RESTARTS HAVE BEEN GIVEN GREEN LIGHT...

JAPAN NUCLEAR RESTARTS HAVE BEEN GIVEN GREEN LIGHT

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/glob...-to-restart-nuclear-reactors/article21501943/

Kyushu Electric Power Co. today received final local approval to resume power generation at its Sendai nuclear plant in northern Japan, according to a statement from Kagoshima prefecture. Officials in Sasumasendai city, the closest community to the reactors, last month voted in favor of allowing the facility to restart.

“We have been waiting for this moment for a long time,” David Sadowski, a Vancouver-based analyst at Raymond James Financial Inc., said today in a note to clients. “Restarts in Japan will reduce the threat that Japan’s utilities will dump their uranium inventories into the market.”

The decisions by local governments put Sendai’s two reactors in position to be the first nuclear plants in Japan to resume operations under more stringent safety rules set by the country’s nuclear regulator, though final reviews of construction and safety rules must still be completed.

The price of U3O8 – a tradable form of uranium – rose 4.3 per cent to $39.50 a pound today, the biggest gain since March 2011, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The metal had traded as high as $73 in January 2011.