Smoke at Japan reactor forces workers to pull back

OSAKA: Workers were evacuated from part of a stricken nuclear power station in Japan on Wednesday after dark smoke was seen rising from one of the reactors, plant operator TEPCO said.

"The workers were pulled out of the control room of reactor number three," an official from Tokyo Electric Power Co. told reporters, adding that the source of the smoke was unknown.

Engineers are trying to restart the cooling systems of the tsunami-crippled Fukushima No. 1 plant, located 250 kilometres (155 miles) northeast of Tokyo, but smoke and spikes in radiation have at times hindered their efforts.