BEAVER COUNTY RADIO

BEAVER — On April 28, the Beaver Area Heritage Museum will
host a free illustrated lecture tracing the remarkable arc of commercial nuclear power — from the world’s first commercial nuclear plant on the banks of the Ohio River to the catastrophic explosion that shook the Soviet Union and changed global history.

The talk begins at 7 p.m. at Beaver Station, 250 East End Ave., Beaver. Admission is
free; seating is limited.

About the Event

In 1958, a reactor in Shippingport lit up Pittsburgh and changed the world. In 1986, a
reactor in Soviet Ukraine exploded — and changed it again. This illustrated talk traces
the extraordinary arc between these two moments: from President Eisenhower’s
audacious “Atoms for Peace” vision, to the engineers who built the world’s first
commercial nuclear plant right here in Beaver County, to the secret design flaw that
made Chernobyl inevitable.

The presentation explores the intersection of science and politics, optimism and
secrecy, and examines what happens when the most powerful technology in human
history is used — and misused.

Event Details
Date: Tuesday, April 28, 2026
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Beaver Station, 250 East End Ave., Beaver, PA
Admission: Free. Seating is limited — arrive early.

About the Speaker
Stephen Catanzarite is an educator, arts administrator, author, and nonprofit leader
with a distinguished career at the intersection of learning, the performing arts, and
community development. He currently serves as Executive Director of the Franciscan
University Homeland Mission in Washington, DC, and is an adjunct professor of English and political science at Franciscan University of Steubenville.

As one of the founders of the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center, Catanzarite served
as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer and helped lead the creation of the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School, where he served as the school’s first
Dean of Arts. He is also the founder of Baden Academy Charter School and led the
creation of the Midland Innovation and Technology Charter School. He is the first
recipient of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools’ Legacy Award for
Lifetime Achievement.

Catanzarite is the author of “Achtung Baby: Meditations on Love in the Shadow of the
Fall” (Bloomsbury, 2007), praised by U2’s Bono as “bang on.” He was also invited by the Library of Congress to write the essay accompanying U2’s “The Joshua Tree” on the National Recording Registry.

He is the librettist of the award-winning opera “Night of the Living Dead,” the first in a
planned trilogy of operas about the Cold War. The third and final work in the cycle will
focus on the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl — making Tuesday’s talk a natural
companion to his broader artistic project. A Carnegie Mellon University graduate,
Catanzarite currently resides in Bridgewater.