Workers Evacuated From Smoking Reactor Building In Japan

In this photo released by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), gray smoke rises from Unit 3 of the tsunami-stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okumamachi, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. (AP)

Workers at the troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant were evacuated after reports of smoke coming from two of the troubled nuclear reactors, even though officials say that radiation levels around the complex remained steady.

Japanese government officials also said today that more vegetables and water supplies, including Tokyo’s, may be contaminated by trace levels of radioactive iodine. The U.S. State Department is offering potassium iodide to staff in Japan as a precaution. We get an update on Japan’s nuclear crisis from Philip Yam, managing editor of ScientificAmerican.com.