TOKAI, Ibaraki Pref. -- The explosion Mar. 11 at a nuclear reprocessing plant here came as a chilling reminder to local residents of what it means to live next door to such a hazard.

"What if I was exposed to radioactivity after the incident?" asked a 73-year-old woman who gardens at a kindergarten close to the site of the incident. "Just the thought of it sent a chill through me." Although many residents here seem resigned to the plant's presence as a price they have to pay -- their livelihoods depend largely on the nuclear power industry -- what really infuriated them was that they were virtually the last ones to receive an account of the accident.

The 73-year-old woman, for example, first heard of the radioactivity leak when her son in Chiba Prefecture phoned her early Mar. 12. Later, 44 emergency sirens placed around the village blared out a warning of the leak shortly after 6:30 a.m. -- some 10 hours after the blast, which is believed to have released radioactivity outside the complex. "I used to take pride in this beautiful village," said the woman, who has lived here for decades and never before experienced this kind of peril. "But this incident made me wonder what the hell is going on in the village office." A Tokai official said village authorities learned of the radiation leak only at 2 a.m. Mar. 12.