Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are rushing to fill a crack with fresh cement to keep highly-radioactive water from leaking into the Pacific ocean. The Tokyo Electric Power Company told reporters that water from the concrete-lined basin was seen leaking into the ocean. CNN reports the leaking water had a measured radiation level of "1,000 millisieverts per hour, which is more than 330 times the dose an average resident of an industrialized country naturally receives in a year." Recently, the water measured 330 meters off the plant showed levels of iodine-131 measuring 4,385 times above average and cesium-137 at 527 times above average, and officials believe the leak in the basin is the cause of the contamination. more ›

More of the racist comments behind a former power plant employee's $4 million discrimination suit came out today. Suzanne Langford, who worked at Starrett City power plant from 2004-2007, says her white boss called a black worker (not her) "a monkey" and "a gorilla," saying that he "should be up a tree sucking on a banana." He also bore ill will towards Oprah Winfrey; allegedly telling Langford the talk show host "should have died in a plane crash," reports the Post. The Queens woman also claims she was forced to serve as locker room attendant in a men's only area decorated with "sexually explicit photographs" showing "women in various states of undress, in sexually suggestive attire and in a demeaning manner." more ›

Good riddance! A dirty old Queens power plant will close tonight at 11:59 on the dot. The Charles Poletti Power Project in Astoria was built in the mid-1970’s and could burn both oil and natural gas. But in 2002 after the EPA called it out as one of the city’s major polluters, Queens Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. filed a lawsuit against the plant, that resulted in today’s shut-down. According to Fox 5, Vallone called the closure a breath of fresh air. more ›

The drawn out saga of the Williamsburg Power Plant may be coming closer to an end; Curbed notes that TransGas Energy Systems lost its latest bid for the "right to build a new power plant on land earmarked for Bushwick Inlet Park." While the company can still appeal, it does look like gentrifiers will be suntanning on the former Bayside Oil site soon enough! (For those keeping track, that's on Kent and North 12th.) More fine print here. more ›

Earlier there was news of a luxury condo leveling a church and digging up graves, now word is in that the South Williamsburg power plant on Kent Avenue will meet the same fate. The Brooklyn Paper reports that Con Edison has finally admitted its plan to demolish the defunct power plant and neighborhood landmark.

Neighbors of the abandoned Kent Avenue power plant knew something was up back in March, when workers started tearing holes into the 102-year-old red brick building, which has been inactive since the late 1990s.