nucleomitophobia

== English == === Alternative forms === nucleomituphobia (misspelling) === Etymology === Coined by psychiatrist Milton Arnold Dushkin in the early 1960s, from nucleo- (“atomic nucleus”) + mito- (“mitosis”) +‎ -phobia (“fear of”), in reference to a supposed resemblance of atomic fission to cellular division. === Noun === nucleomitophobia (uncountable) Fear of nuclear radiation, now especially atomic bombs. 1963 January, Michael Freeberne, translating an article in the 1 March 1962 Hongqi (《红旗》) in "Chinese Vignettes", Problems of Communism, Vol. XII, No. 1, p. 15: When they are frantically expanding armament and making preparations for war, and they need to create war hysteria, they encourage man-made nucleomitophobia to spread rampantly, letting people know how radioactivity is already "threatening normal life in the United States." But when they want to sell their milk, they have to try "to find ways and means to set people's minds at ease regarding the question of radioactivity." Under the capitalist system, which is characterized by irresoluble contradictions, such jokes cannot be avoided. 1988, Brian Stableford, "American Book of the Dead", Fiction & Fantasy Book Review Annual: Bertie Rupp, who wanted to become a farmer in his youth, is entrapped by city life and achieves brief celebrity as the man who aestheticized continuous computer stationery. Disenchantment and nucleomitophobia (an exaggerated fear of atomic Armageddon) cause him to drop out. 2008, Ronald M. Doctor & al., The Encyclopedia of Phobias, Fears, and Anxieties, 3rd ed., s.v. "nuclear war and nuclear weapons": Fear of nuclear weapons is known as nucleomitophobia. The same term applies to fear of atomic energy... The fear is based on a feeling by individuals that they have no control over the fate of the world and that nuclear weapons can kill off all of human life and civilization. This fear is also related to a fear of death and a fear of apocalypse, or the end of the world.