Top Stories This Week: Japan News Boosts Uranium, Powell Takes Hawkish Stance at Jackson Hole

Japan's nuclear news another positive uranium catalyst

Moving on from gold, let's take a look at the uranium market.

The UEX (TSX:UEX,OTCQB:UEXCF) bidding war between Uranium Energy (NYSEAMERICAN:UEC) and Denison Mines (TSX:DML,NYSEAMERICAN:DNN) brought some excitement to the space earlier this month, and more recently the industry has seen other positive catalysts emerge on a global scale.

In focus this week was the news that Japan is not only looking to restart idled nuclear plants, but also wants to develop next-generation reactors. The news came from the country's prime minister, who said a government "green transformation" panel will report back on ideas for these new reactors by the end of the year.

As a reminder, Japan took its reactors offline after an earthquake triggered 2011's Fukushima nuclear disaster, and ramping back up has been a slow process that market participants have watched closely — Rick Rule of Rule Investment Media has said for years that he sees Japanese restarts as a crucial catalyst for the sector.

I heard from Justin Huhn of Uranium Insider shortly after the announcement, and he explained that Japan wants nuclear power to account for 20 to 22 percent of its grid by 2035, which would mean restarting an additional 20+ reactors. In the short term, it wants to restart at least seven more reactors by mid-2023.

"Depending on which reactors are restarted and those utilities, what sort of inventories they might still have in their own possession, we could actually see renewed demand from these restarts. And of course it also means it's less likely that Japanese utilities will be selling pounds of inventory back into the market" — Justin Huhn, Uranium Insider

The market's reaction has been very positive, and for Justin the news is a global message on the need for clean energy. We'll be posting his interview next week, along with uranium commentary from Peter Grandich and John Ciampaglia, so keep an eye out for those conversations.