Smoke briefly rose Saturday from a control panel at a Japanese nuclear power plant operated by the same company battling to stop radiation seeping from a quake-stricken facility, a report said.

There were no injuries but the cause of the smoke at the plant in coastal Niigata prefecture was not clear, Kyodo news said, citing Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO).

The incident occurred in the evening during the checking of water purification equipment at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear complex, the company was quoted as saying.

The beleaguered TEPCO has been fighting to prevent more radiation from leaking out of the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan's northeast after it was crippled by the devastating March 11 quake and tsunami.