Bursts of smoke Monday from the buildings housing the No. 2 and No. 3 reactors forced repair crews to evacuate the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, but no rise in radiation levels was detected at the compound, the government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.
Tepco officials said they believed the smoke from the No. 2 reactor was actually water vapor and probably did not originate from the reactor itself or the spent fuel pool.
Around 9 p.m., a Tepco official in Tokyo told reporters that radiation levels around the No. 2 reactor had not changed.