Radiophobia had to be reinvented

In recent years, the Institute of Radiation Safety and Ecology in Kazakhstan has proposed a plan to return large segments of the Soviet-era Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site to economic activity, notably farming and stock breeding. Despite fierce opposition to the plan, the Institute has framed these concerns as a case of ‘radiophobia’ or the irrational fear of radiation. In this article, I explore how a nexus of forces situates radiophobia as a mental health issue rooted in the irrational belief that radiation is harmful. Radiophobia is thus constructed as a mental disorder located inside the head of its victims rather than in the public domain. The deployment of radiophobia, therefore, illuminates a broader political and economic strategy in Kazakhstan that deprioritizes issues of public health and blocks the proper securitisation of a radioactive landscape.