The quake-damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant in the Japan (Getty Images)
Fukushima Prefecture, Japan -- Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), and the Japanese government gave a joint press conference on Sunday and explained that an unusual amount of smoke that billowed from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power reactor on Saturday night was nothing to be concerned about.
"Steam is coming out from the spent fuel pool of the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors, and I'm assuming that due to shadows created by lighting, the steam appeared black. Therefore, we assessed that it's not smoke from something burning or that sort of thing," TEPCO's General Manager, Junichi Matsumoto reassured reporters at the press conference.
Kyodo News Agency reported that the temperature of No. 3 reactor rose from 163 degrees Celsius to 202 degrees Celsius on Saturday, although this is still lower than the normal operating temperature of 286 degrees Celsius. This has possibly caused the more than usual amount of steam coming out from the nuclear reactors.
TEPCO also decided to open the reinforced door of the troubled No. 1 reactor building on Sunday, making way for engineers to work inside to stabilize it.
According to the Kyodo News Agency, TEPCO will build a new cooling system once the workers are able to work inside, but is currently studying the effects of opening the door as radioactive substances will be released into air.
An advisor to the Prime Minister, Goshi Hosono, said the Japanese government had informed every country with embassies in Japan about opening the reinforced door.
"We are trying to be as courteous as possible, so we will directly call our neighboring countries to let them know and the countries that are assisting us, such as the United States," Hosono told reporters at the joint news conference.
Kyodo News Agency reported that NISA had determined that the amount of radiation released by the opening of the reinforced door would be approximately 500 million Becquerels, about 1/300 of the radiation in the 10,000 tonnes of contaminated water released into the ocean back in April.
In the meantime, TEPCO released new video footage of the spent fuel pool of No. 4 reactor on Sunday. It exploded due to hydrogen build-up on March 15, and is said to be in need of structural reinforcement to hold all the water of the spent fuel pool.
Japanese officials said on Sunday they were committed to nuclear power after Prime Minister Naoto Kan called for another plant to close, but that the target of obtaining half of Japan's electricity from nuclear power by 2030 needed to be examined.
CBS