Japan Can't Exist Without Nuclear Power--Starts Reactor Tonite [Picture]

Good news for Japan and the uranium market

The restart is a big win for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has been working to reboot nuclear power in Japan and get the country’s economy back on track. Despite opposition, Abe has insisted that without nuclear power, the Japanese economy will buckle under the cost of oil and gas imports.

For his part, Cantor Fitzgerald Senior Analyst Rob Chang believes the announcement is very positive, and said in a note released Monday that the news will return general market interest to nuclear power and uranium. His firm expects the news to cause uranium equities across the board to strengthen.

“Ever since the Fukushima incident derailed a uranium market that was heating up significantly in March 2011 many have pointed at nuclear restarts in Japan as a key catalyst to  by Crossbrowse”>RESTART’ interest in the space,” Chang said. “That time is now. While a single reactor will not move the needle in terms of overall uranium demand, we view this event as the type of front page news event that will return interest into the nuclear and uranium space. We expect across the board strength in the uranium by Crossbrowse”>UNIVERSE with particular interest being paid to companies with higher liquidity.”

Cantor Fitzgerald expects the restart of the second Sendai unit to be the only other restart in 2015; however, it sees a total of nine reactors being up and running by the end of 2016. And while the firm believes that most of Japan’s 48 reactors will have to come back online to effect any major shift in the supply and demand balance, Monday’s Sendai restart is certainly a positive move and further cements expectations for a uranium supply deficit by 2020. source