Japan's ongoing nuclear accident remained a center of spotlight Wednesday, as smoke was temporarily seen at the Fukushima Daini turbine building.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), operator of the Fukushima nuclear power plants, said smoke was detected coming from a power distribution panel on the first floor of the turbine building at the Fukushima Daini plant, about 15 kilometers from the tsunami-ravaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex.

The smoke quickly dissipated and no radiation was released. Officials were looking into its cause. The Fukushima Daini plant also suffered some damage in the tsunami but has been in cold shutdown since days after the March 11 earthquake.

Earlier Wednesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said it was highly likely that the stricken reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant would be decommissioned.

Speaking at a news conference, Edano said that he believed all six reactors at the heavily damaged facility should be decommissioned and that scrapping the reactors would be in the best interests of society.

In the absence of Masataka Shimizu, TEPCO's CEO who was hospitalized due to high blood pressure and dizziness, Tsunehisa Katsumata, the company's chairman, said at a separate news conference that at least four of the reactors should be scrapped.

"We have no choice but to scrap reactors 1 to 4 if we look at their conditions objectively," Katsumata said.

According to Edano, it would still take some time to resolve the crisis, and that people evacuated from the vicinity of the crippled Daiichi facility might not be able to return home anytime soon.

``We must do everything we can to end this situation as soon as possible for the sake of everyone who has been affected,'' said Yuhei Sato, governor of Fukushima prefecture. ``I am extremely disappointed and saddened by the suggestion that this might drag out longer.''

Earlier Wednesday, the government was mulling taking the unprecedented measure of covering three of the badly damaged nuclear reactor buildings with special fabric caps and fitting air filters to limit radiation leak.