Commodities | Oct 21 2014
By Greg Peel
Among the five issues with regard Japanese reactor restarts summarised by uranium market analysts at Citi, outlined in FNArena’s previous Uranium Week, one is that of “approval from local authorities”. But as last week’s debate among relevant parties in Japan revealed, the problem is not specifically one of “local” approval.
The first two Japanese reactors to have received the green light from the safety regulator to date are Kyushu Electric’s Sendai units one and two, located at the town of Satsumasendai in the Kagoshima prefecture, 600 miles southwest of Tokyo. While one might assume community objection to restarting the reactors arises from the township in question, in fact the benefits provided to the host town are sufficient to outweigh fears of reactor accidents. The Mayor of Satsumasendai is all for the restarts.
The governor of Kagoshima is also pro-restart, but the objection stumbling block has arisen from other townships within the prefecture which do not directly enjoy the benefits of reactor location but would indeed suffer as a result of any accident that may occur. Radiation clouds are not known to obediently hang over the township from which they emanate. Thus the process of government meetings with affected local residents continues, with fifth and final meeting regarding the Sendai reactors to be held today.
Local politicians suggest approval is unlikely before December. Nonetheless, Citi’s analysts had already pencilled in the March quarter 2015.
In other news last week, a new pro-renewable energy policy became law in France and immediately the French president rejected the contract renewal application of the pro-nuclear Electricite de France CEO. The new act is aimed at reducing France’s dependence on nuclear power to 50% from a current 75%.
Volumes in the spot uranium market fell to less than 500,000/lbs of U3O8 equivalent over five transactions last week, industry consultant TradeTech reports, with buyers and sellers equally matched. There was little variation in pricing during the week and thus TradeTech’s weekly spot price indicator remains unchanged at US$35.50/lb.
Speculators and intermediaries continue to dominate the demand side at present, although some end-user demand is expected to emerge in coming weeks, the consultant reports.
TradeTech’s term price indicators remain unchanged at US$37.775/lb (mid) and US$45.00/lb (long).
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