Tokyo: Efforts to cool and restore power to reactors at the earthquake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is in progress but slow, emergency workers said.
Power is needed to restart pumps to pour cold water on the overheating fuel rods and avert a major radiation leak.
There have been a number of explosions in the reactor buildings since Friday’s magnitude earthquake.
More than 16,000 people are either confirmed dead or listed as missing after the quake and subsequent tsunami.
Japanese police say 6,405 people are known to have died and around 10,200 others are missing.
But Kyodo news agency reports that the official toll is based on names registered with police, and that the true figure could be in the tens of thousands.
The atomic crisis was triggered when the power supply to Fukushima, about 240km north of Tokyo, was damaged by the natural disaster and back-up generators failed.
Smoke was reported to be billowing from the plant on Friday morning and it was not clear what was causing it.
At a press conference, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano spoke of steam emitting from the plant after helicopters had sprayed water over the affected reactors on Thursday.
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