There are a few sad things in Pittsburgh. One of them is the Westinghouse atom smasher. It currently lies on its side in the middle of a field of debris in the suburb of Forest Hill, covered in graffiti.

This is a key part of nuclear history and they keep talking about doing something with it. At one point the plan was to have it be the center of a STEM campus. At another, the site was supposed to become condos, and the developer promised to take care of it…before running out of money.

But why is this thing so important? Why do we care about it not sitting in a debris field until it rusts away?

Let’s go hop down the rabbithole.