JAPANESE UTILITIES : ''SELLING FUEL URANIUM''

JAPANESE UTILITIES start selling Uranium Fuel into depressed market.

JAPAN'S nuclear operators are starting to sell some of their large and huge holdings of uranium fuel, as chances fade of restarting many more reactors eight years after the ''Fukushima nuclear disaster''.

The sales so far have been small, but were made at values well below their purchase price and are likely to further depress the already beaten-down uranium market, say two senior market specialists.

They could also focus attention on the balance sheets of the country's utilities, bolstered by holdings of nuclear fuel valued at Yen 2.5 trillion [19.19 billion pounds], a figure that market experts say is highly unrealistic.

''Given the extended shutdown of our reactors, we are selling uranium as well as cancelling long-term contracts where necessary,'' Japan Atomic told Reuters in a statement.

The company, which is yet to receive all the all the regulatory approvals needed to restart reactors at either of its two nuclear stations, declined to provide further details.

Before the meltdown at Tokyo Electric Power's Fukushima plant in March 2011 after an earthquake and tsunami, Japan was the world's third biggest user of nuclear power behind the united States and, Germany, Belgium and other countries, traders and specialists say the market is likely to remain depressed for years.

Fueling Reactors : Unlike other commodities such as crude oil, most of the nuclear fuel market is privately traded, generally on  long-term contracts, although CME Group's NYMEX has a futures contract for uranium oxide [U308]

The contract is settled on prices supplied by US-based UxC, L.L.C also calculates prices for converted and enriched uranium. [Agencies]

The honor and serving of the latest Global Operational Research on Uranium Fuel, and Markets, continues.