Westinghouse Atom Smasher

[Nancy Flury Carlson]

Hello LUG, I need help! Today I received an email from my Westinghouse contact, Jenna Slimm, asking me for a proposal to build an Atom Smasher. I need advice on doing the proposal and I would love help from someone who could partner with me or advise me on using Stud.io to design it.

Our emails are below:

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Hi Jenna,
This is great! I’m so happy to hear about the effort to restore and maintain this great part of Westinghouse and world history. I am definitely interested in pursuing this. I will need to reach out to my Steel City LUG colleagues for advice on preparing a proposal. The Steel City LUG did one this past year for the new airport because they had asked if we could build a model for them. I will also likely need to find a good partner within the LUG to help me with designing it in Stud.io, the LEGO CAD program. It might take a while – do you have a turnaround requirement in mind?

It’s timely because I have been thinking about the Atom Smasher recently and trying to figure out a way to make one with LEGO. I played around a little with ChatGPT but it came up with bizarre images so I had very little trust in its LEGO parts lists and further instructions. Ultimately I decided I would want to do it myself but I have not worked on it seriously yet.

We are about to leave for a week’s vacation, but I will start a thread on the Steel City LUG and start collecting ideas. The design I had in mind so far was a cutaway of the “light bulb” shape on top of a rough simulation of the building it was originally on. I wanted a cutaway in order to show the particle generator on the inside, similar to my AP1000 containment building and cooling tower. Does that idea sound close to what you were imagining? If not, what do you have in mind?

So happy to hear from you, and I hope we will be able to make this happen!

Thanks
Nancy

Nancy Flury Carlson
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:

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Hi Nancy!

I hope you’re doing well! I am reaching out to you with a request that I hope you’ll find enjoyable … at the intersection of two of your interests… Westinghouse and Legos!

You may have seen some media coverage this week, but Westinghouse is leading the charge to save the Atom Smasher. First, we need to restore it … then we’ll confirm its final “home”. In the meantime – we wanted to lean on your expertise. Would you be able to make us a Westinghouse Atom Smasher Lego model that we could utilize and keep as part of this overall effort? We’d look to you for your proposal on what to do and how to do it… but we’re thinking it would be 18 inches to 2 feet tall. Westinghouse would cover the costs for this fun adventure (and I know this would mean we’d love to highlight you at the end when finished) – but would need details from you as to proposed costs, timeline, etc.

I’ve copied my leader, Shanan Guinn, on this email. We look forward to your input and questions to move this forward!

Thanks so much as always – and I hope you’re willing to consider this!

Jenna Slimm
Senior Director, Westinghouse Communications
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[Josh Schu]

very interesting in all parts of this

want to learn LUG pricing, need a motive to use STUD.IO, and to learn what/how that thing did its thing

[Bob Grier]

I’d also be glad to help with this @carlsonf!! I did the initial draft of the proposal for the Airport Model, as well as the material take-offs and parts estimate. Fair warning though, I am NOT the person to help out with a Stud.io model!!

[Nancy Flury Carlson]

Thanks Josh and Bob for your comments!!
Overnight my left brain has caught up with my right brain. It actually makes way more sense for me to take myself out of the loop and instead serve as the intermediary to connect someone in the LUG, who already has the ability to do this, with Jenna at Westinghouse. Is anyone interested? I really hope so!! I would love to be able to connect someone with this opportunity and stand down.

[Nancy Flury Carlson]

Josh Schu wrote:

very interesting in all parts of this

want to learn LUG pricing, need a motive to use STUD.IO, and to learn what/how that thing did its thing

So Josh – You actually know how to design and build things right? The atom smasher was the first instance of a Van De Graaf generator / particle accelerator. Highly cool. I just emailed my Westinghouse contacts telling them that I do not have the “Magic Happens Here” skill set to get from the idea in my head to a finished product. Are you interested? I would love to put you in touch with Jenna if you are. Last night the farthest I could get in my head was that it MIGHT be possible to do what they want on a 48×48 MILS, which is what I have my AP1000 containment building on.

But then I descended into a state of abject panic and anxiety realizing that I had no idea how to approach designing and building the rest. It really does not make any sense for me to even be involved as I would just be slowing down someone who actually does know what they are doing.

[Josh Schu]

yea im okay with that, i also have some self doubt but i dont think that doubt is justified for either of us. Id like to spend some time designing a skeleton for it first…

but i can stall while i build confidence haha

[email protected]

[Josh Schu]

4 hours of drafting (better than homework…)

This feels very feasible

13in by 26in but modeled into 2×2 MILS

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[Nancy Flury Carlson]

@schu54321 that Atom Smasher is smashing!!!

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