Japan reactor restarts should boost uranium shares

The restart of Japan's two reactors could spark a rally by uranium-mining shares, which have languished since the March 2011 disaster.

Recent steps to bring the first of 50 shuttered reactors back online have already bolstered long-term uranium prices, which rose last month for the first time since January 2011.

Analysts say the reactor restarts, expected to be approved on Saturday, will likely soothe equity investors, who pulled out of Cameco Corp  and other uranium stocks en masse following the Fukushima nuclear accident. 

"If Japan restarts reactors, that goes some way towards derisking nuclear power and therefore also the uranium sector," said BMO Capital Markets mining analyst Edward Sterck.

"Two reactors would just be a signal that Japan isn't abandoning nuclear power altogether," he added. "That could be a positive catalyst for uranium stocks."

Shares of Cameco, the world's largest listed pure play uranium miner, are down more than 40 percent since March 2011, when a massive earthquake and tsunami struck

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