Uranium Investing News staff report that there is positive news from Japan last week that helped to offset some negative sentiment in the uranium market after the recent setback with the Takahama reactors. Specifically, the Kagoshima District Court rejected a lawsuit that would have halted the restart of Kyushu Electric Power Company Sendai nuclear station. The court overruled residents in the region who were concerned about the plant safety. With the positive decision by the Japanese court, two reactors at Sendai could be restarted as early as June. Sendai is expected to be the first plant to restart following the Fukushima tsunami disaster four years ago.
The approval is a big win for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is working hard to get his 48 idle reactors back online. Indeed, restarting its nuclear fleet is of the utmost importance to Japan, which is spending an estimated 40 million U.S. dollars per year on importing fossil fuels in order to offset the loss of electricity generated by nuclear power, Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Rob Chang said in a note to clients. Solar and wind contributes only a little power.
Meanwhile, Reuters notes that the ruling is also a vote of confidence for a revamped regulator and suggests another court ruling last week to prevent the operation of two reactors west of Tokyo may have been an aberration for Japanese conservative judiciary. For his part, Raymond James analyst David Sadowski said in a note to clients that the decision significantly de-risks the reactor restart process, and should make it easier for the other 16 reactors that have applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Authority to get the green light.
Original URL: https://investingnews.com/category/daily/resource-investing/energy-investing/uranium-investing/
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