Smoke billowing from Japanese nuclear plant

TOKYO -- An accident at a shuttered nuclear power plant sent smoke billowing into the air Friday, but there were no immediate reports of radiation leaks or injuries.

It wasn't immediately clear what happened inside the experimental plant, near the town of Tsuruga in central Japan. City spokesman Yoshihiro Kadono said the accident occurred at an incinerator in the nuclear complex.

Firefighters rushed to the scene after getting reports of an explosion, a local fire official said.

There was no sign of fire from the outside and the smoke subsided without firefighters turning on their hoses, he said.

A spokesman at the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said on condition of anonymity there was no danger of leaking radiation because the plant had not generated power since March. It was shut down because of high operating costs.

Chikara Gunji, a spokesman for the facility's operator, Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute, said plant officials tried to restart the incinerator Friday and the fire alarm went off soon after.

Gunji said officials were still investigating the cause but found a viewing window on an incinerator duct was broken and that wind may have stirred up ash inside the burning chamber, causing the smoke and setting off the alarm.

But Gunji said some workers inside the compound also reported hearing an explosion. About 100 people were in the complex at the time.

The incinerator is used to burn items contaminated with low-level radiation, such as workers' protective clothing, an industry and trade ministry official said.

Fugen, which had an output of 165,000 kilowatts of electricity, began operation in 1979 in Tsuruga and was designed to burn a mixture of uranium and plutonium as a transition to more advanced, reactors that use plutonium fuel instead of uranium. Dismantling it will take 40 years.