Transmute,
You mention NMRI. Why do you think the public knows it as MRI, not NMRI….. The equipment manufacture felt that having the N word (nuclear) on the machine would make people not want to use it.
So, this example, in fact, supports my position that the general public has a “mistrust”, at the very least, of radiation and nuclear technology.
Why has pasteurisation using ionizing radiation not become more accepted? Why is it called “cold pasteurisation” instead?