And then radiation became a staple in medicine with the proliferation of radioimaging and radiosurgery. But then the Therac 25 thing and Chernobyl happened, and we're in this scare #2 era since.

It would seem to me that the public sentiment of stuff is not very trustworthy in general, especially at its typical intensity. Both when it's negative or positive. The word "multimedia" still makes me gag a little, for example.