I'm speaking of the U.S.A. Foundations never go away and the U.S.A was founded on puritan values, i.e shameism. There is no motivation, it's a rooted tradition that hasn't been uprooted yet.

> There are good reasons for nuclear power but it's not irrational to say nuclear power poses risks. The public simply calculates a different expected value in the unlikely event of a problem because the outrage produced by such an event would be so high.

This topic, nuclear vs. similarly-outputting-source, has been beaten to death. Nuclear power is one of the less dangerous, yet high output, sources of energy. The public "eyeballs" their calculations with old data, anecdotes, and inconsistencies.

> Also, It doesn't have to be a conscious lens for it to have an effect on norms/behavior

Yes, but then it starts to sway towards irrationality. When you can no longer understand the basis for your actions, how can you figure out if they're rational or not?

If you don't know your reasons or logic, then by simplification your actions are irrational.