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Cameco's vision is to be a dominant nuclear energy company producing uranium fuel and generating clean electricity. Our key strategy to deliver this vision is to sustain and grow uranium production in a way that is safe, clean, cost-effective and communit

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Message: Uranium Miners Jump as Japan Moves to Restart Reactors
By Christopher Donville Nov 7, 2014 12:21 PM ET
Created with Highcharts 3.0.22014MarMayJulSepNov0.751.001.251.501.75* Price chart for FISSION URANIUM CORP. Click flags for important stories. FCU:CN0.880.12 15.79%0.8511/07/2014

Uranium miners soared in Toronto trading and the metal increased after Japan cleared the way to restart the first of the nuclear reactors that were shut down after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Cameco Corp. (CCO), Canada’s largest uranium producer, increased 9.7 percent, the biggest intraday gain since August 2010, while Denison Mines Corp. (DML) climbed as much as 24 percent and explorer Fission Uranium Corp. (FCU) rose 14 percent.

Kyushu Electric Power Co. (9508) today received final local approval to resume power generation at its Sendai nuclear plant in northern Japan, according to a statement from Kagoshima prefecture. Officials in Sasumasendai city, the closest community to the reactors, last month voted in favor of allowing the facility to restart.

“We have been waiting for this moment for a long time,” David Sadowski, a Vancouver-based analyst at Raymond James Financial Inc., said today in a note to clients. “Restarts in Japan will reduce the threat that Japan’s utilities will dump their uranium inventories into the market.”

The decisions by local governments put Sendai’s two reactors in position to be the first nuclear plants in Japan to resume operations under more stringent safety rules set by the country’s nuclear regulator, though final reviews of construction and safety rules must still be completed.

The price of U3O8 -- a tradable form of uranium -- rose 4.3 percent to $39.50 a pound today, the biggest gain since March 2011, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The metal had traded as high as $73 in January 2011.

The Solactive Global Uranium Total Return Index, which tracks 21 companies in the uranium mining industry, rose the most since March 2011. The index is still down 81 percent from its highest price in 2011.

The March 2011 earthquake and tsunami led to the meltdown of three reactors at Tokyo Electric Power’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant.

Cameco, based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, rose 9.6 percent to C$20.96 at 12:16 p.m.

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