By Greg Peel

The only nuclear reactors operating in Japan today are units 3 and 4 at Ohi. They restarted generation in June last year a following the government's reassessment of its nuclear power industry but preceding the establishment of a new Nuclear Regulatory Authority in the country. The NRA has now introduced new safety requirements to come into force in July.

New safety requirements are comforting, but the restarted Ohi units do not comply. Rather than lose nuclear power altogether, Ohi has been granted an extension for compliance to September. The news is not earth shattering but it does imply that the restart of Japan's other many reactors is not something that will happen overnight. Prime Minister Abe has already made such a warning despite his new government being pro-nuclear. In the meantime, Japan is spending a lot of money importing excess levels of LNG for electricity generation.

Uranium prices continue to languish at the bottom end of their range, with utilities not queuing up to exploit what were only recently considered bargain prices. Last week saw 600,000lbs of U2O8 equivalent change hands, reports industry consultant TradeTech, with speculators and producers the major participants and utilities barely spotted. Buyers and sellers remain price sensitive, TradeTech suggests, hence there was little movement in spot prices over the course of the week. The consultant's spot price indicator thus remains at US$42.25/lb.

There were no transactions in the term market but TradeTech reports one utility seeking 2mlbs for delivery 2014-20 and another 8mlbs worth of deals are being assessed for 2015-25 delivery. In the meantime, TradeTech's term price indicators remain unchanged at US$46/lb (medium) and US$57/lb (long).


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