The emotional rollercoaster for Berkeley Energy shareholders continues: an insider now says the uranium hopeful is about to snag a crucial endorsement from Spain’s nuclear watchdog for its contentious Salamanca uranium project.

The speculation has lit a rocket under Berkeley’s (ASX:BKY) share price, which is up more than 61 per cent to 40c in morning trade.

The Reuters source said the watchdog, CSN,  is going to approve two studies next week which examined Salamanca’s potential radiation effects on the general environment, among other safety concerns.

On January 7 the explorer was given a speeding ticket by the ASX after shares inexplicably jumped from 16c to 24.5c on higher volume.

The company told investors it has no explanation for the share price surge.

Even if the CSN approvals are granted, Berkeleys’s project still needs the overall green light from CSN, as well as a bunch of other local, regional and national government approvals.

A wild ride: The Berkeley share price has been responding aggressively to media speculation.

The explorer’s share price plummeted 30 per cent in October last year after another unnamed source told Spanish media that the government was going to deny permits for Salamanca.

The anonymous government source was quoted as saying “the government will wait for the ongoing proceedings to go through, but it will say no”.

Another source allegedly said Berkeley was “living in a parallel universe” if it believed the mine would soon become a reality.

Berkeley has reportedly shelled out more than $113 million over the last decade in attempts to get the open pit mine up and running.

Estimated construction costs are more than $400 million.

If approved, Salamanca will produce 4.4 million pounds of uranium, which Berkeley says will make it a top 10 producer.