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How does a court seize a nuclear plant? Well, that damn Russian floating nuclear plant is cursed. After a series of early setbacks, the plant, Akademik Lomonosov, is now close to completion. Too bad the shipyard building it is going to go bankrupt. The power plant had been planned to be used in the Arctic Ocean for some years now, but the Court of Arbitration of Saint Petersburg recently seized the floating nuclear power plant due to a request from Rosenergoatom, the state owned company that will operate the plant.

Rosenergoatom wanted the nuclear power plant in state control because United Industrial Corporation, the largest shareholder of Baltiysky Zavod, the shipyard building the plant, has given its stake in the shipyard to a bank as collateral for an unreturned loan. Basically, Rosenergoatom doesn't want another company claiming the shipyard's assets (i.e. the floating power plant) during the inevitable bankruptcy proceedings.

it's a terribly messy situation with a possibly shady cast of characters and a whole lot of money involved. Which means, this can go on forever. Surprisingly, the plant is still being built and is still set to fire up its first atom in 2012 but we're not sure who's going to end up running the thing. I just can't believe that this FLOATING NUCLEAR POWER PLANT has been taken over by guys in suits.

The Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability has an answer, and it's anything but business as usual. By deploying a mix of renewables and energy efficiency technology, they argue, Japan's need for electricity could be met three years sooner than through nuclear and conventional fossil fuel power.

All told, Japan's earthquake and tsunami have knocked out at least 15,000 megawatts of electricity generating capacity -- that's greater than the total summer peak demand for all of New York City

Rebuilding with renewables would restore the country’s capacity more cleanly. The initial cost would be higher but spread across the lifetime of the initiatives, it would only amount to an additional 10 percent more per year. The study authors argue this would be more than justified by the positive economic impact of meeting Japan's power needs years before conventional plants could be brought on-line.

New reactor construction is so expensive and unpredictable that no U.S. utility is willing to take the risk without the backing of federal loan guarantees, potentially in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Beyond Nuclear and others fight to prevent the mature nuclear industry from seizing any such subsidies which are better spent on true climate solutions such as renewable energy and energy efficiency programs.

A Canadian company has been threatening to confiscate private land from South Dakota to the Gulf of Mexico, and is already suing many who have refused to allow the Keystone XL pipeline on their property even though the controversial project has yet to receive federal approval.

Randy Thompson, a cattle buyer in Nebraska, was informed that if he did not grant pipeline access to 80 of the 400 acres left to him by his mother along the Platte River, “Keystone will use eminent domain to acquire the easement.” Sue Kelso and her large extended family in Oklahoma were sued in the local district court by TransCanada, the pipeline company, after she and her siblings refused to allow the pipeline to cross their pasture.

“Their land agent told us the very first day she met with us, you either take the money or they’re going to condemn the land,” Mrs. Kelso said. By its own count, the company currently has 34 eminent domain actions against landowners in Texas and an additional 22 in South Dakota.In addition to enraging those along the proposed pipeline’s 1,700-mile path, the tactics have many people questioning whether a foreign company can pressure landowners without a permit from the State Department — the agency charged with determining whether the project is in the “national interest.” A decision is expected by year’s end on the pipeline, which would carry crude oil from Alberta to American refineries.

About 19 percent of airborne fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster was deposited in Japan, and only about 2 percent made it to other land areas in Asia and North America, according to a study published this week by the European Geosciences Union. The bulk was absorbed by the Pacific Ocean.

Opponents of nuclear energy have seized on the European study because it describes the total release at Fukushima as “massive.” It finds that twice as much cesium 137 was released at Fukushima than originally reported. And it says “high concentrations” reached North America and Europe. It examines two radionuclides in particular–xenon 133 and cesium 137–and measures the total release in terabecquerels.

Altogether, we estimate that 6.4 TBq of 137Cs, or 19 percent of the total fallout until 20 April, were deposited over Japanese land areas, while most of the rest fell over the North Pacific Ocean,” the authors write. “Only 0.7 TBq, or 2 percent of the total fallout were deposited on land areas other than Japan.” Scientists generally regard ocean absorption of fallout preferable to land deposits, because water absorbs radiation and the volume of the ocean dilutes it. On land, radioactive isotopes can be consumed by livestock and concentrated in milk and other food sources. The study also notes that airborne emissions of cesium 137 continued until March 19, when Japanese authorities began spraying water on the spent fuel pool of reactor #4. “This indicates that emissions were not only coming from the damaged reactor cores, but also from the spent-fuel pool of unit 4 and confirms that the spraying was an effective countermeasure.”