Three Mile Island Disaster Helped Spawn Pittsburgh Robotics Industry

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – When disaster struck, no human could see or venture inside the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant where a meltdown in the reactor core caused radioactive coolant water to pool eight-feet high in the basement.“Of course that really wasn’t clearly understood. Couldn’t be understood until a machine could get in there,” said Carnegie Mellon University Roboticist Red Whittaker.
It was up to Whittaker to develop this first of kind robot to enter the