By Sam Boughedda
Shares of Uranium stocks are rallying Wednesday on the back of news that Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the country will restart idled nuclear plants.
Cameco Corp. (NYSE:CCJ) is up 9.5%, Uranium Energy (NYSE:UEC) is trading 9.8% higher, Denison Mines (NYSE:DNN) has gained 13.6%, and Energy Fuels (NYSE:UUUU) is up 15% at the time of writing.
Kishida also stated Japan will consider developing next-generation reactors. The move represents a policy reversal, with the nation turning back toward atomic energy as energy prices worldwide soar. It had been reducing its use of nuclear power since 2011, when a tsunami resulted in water crashing into the country's Fukushima Daiichi power plant, resulting in a nuclear disaster.
Japan, which reportedly had seven operating nuclear reactors and three offline at the end of July, has been increasing its imports of natural gas and coal to fulfill its energy needs, but the country wants to reduce its dependency on these fuels.
In addition, with Russia invading Ukraine, the price of energy has soared, prompting the Japanese Government to suggest residents conserve electricity.
"We believe sentiment around uranium will improve materially, particularly as winter sets in across Europe and in the U.S., and the limits of unreliable solar/wind power cause real harm to real people (i.e., both financially and physically)," a GLJ Research analyst told Investing.com. "We expect a number of NATO governments to become much more 'friendly' to the nuclear sector over the coming months." In particular, the analyst is a bull on Cameco Corp. where he has a Buy rating and 'Street High' price target of C$48.40, or about U.S. $37.32.