KASHIMA, Shimane Pref. -- For 50 years, she has lived on a dead-end street at the foot of a hill.

Since 1974, the Shimane nuclear power plant has sat on the other side of the hill.

"At first, of course, we were very afraid," the 68-year-old said, recalling when the station was proposed in the late 1960s. "But Chugoku Electric Power explained a lot about the nuclear plant, and we saw that it was safe. Nothing has happened, so it is safe."