China Temporarily Suspends Nuclear Plant Approvals

Confirming what they've already said, China said it will continue to build its nuclear reactors and maintian their nuclear energy strategy, although they have stopped approval of nuclear plants in order to go over safety standards to see if anything needs to be changed.

Some media outlets have made this look as if there is some doubt as to using nuclear energy in China, but that's not the case at all; it's just a temporary precaution to make sure the proper safety measures in place before proceeding.

In a statement made by the Chinese state council, they also said it "has required relevant departments to do safety checks at existing plants."

"Before the revised safety standards are approved, all new nuclear power plants, including pre-construction works, should be suspended," according to the statement.

The report concluded that China isn't affected by radioactive leakage from the Japanese plant.

As expected, the nuclear, and by extension, uranium industry, could be under short-term pressure, but that won't last long once the safety process is completed.

With the nuclear goals still in place, it's unclear whether that will have too much of a detrimental impact on uranium companies, as an expected supply problem has been anticipated for some time, and China and others vying for uranium may continue to stock up.

Some uranium companies are Cameco (NYSE:CCJ), Crosshair (AMEX:CXZ), Denison (AMEX:DNN), Uranium Energy (AMEX:UEC), UR Energy (AMEX:URG), Uranium Resources (NASDAQ:URRE) and Uranerz Energy (AMEX:URZ).