The author speculates on the psychological effects of widespread public exposure, in print and broadcast media, to images and facts concerning atomic explosions from 1945 to 1963. He calls on a variety of sources, from Sybil Escalona's extensive survey of children to Wangh's own more informal interviews with young adults and colleagues. In individual settings and group discussion, the "strontium 90 generation" admit that they live under a significant pall of nuclear anxiety. A feeling of "What is the use?" is always latently present. Wangh thus turns to the curious finding that despite the prevalence of anxiety over the potential holocaust, it is seldom raised in psychotherapy or analysis. Various reasons for this are discussed. Wangh speculates that affective consciousness of nuclear threat violates the