Sep 11, 2026 · 18 min · 13 segments
School is back in session for many. So all week, we're bringing you stories from our archive about schools with a little something extra -- unusual traditions, ceremonies and customs. Students at Reed…
Dylan ThurasHost
Jerry NewhouseGuest
Kelly McEversHost
[curious music] Reed College is a quintessential liberal arts school in the Northwest.
As you might expect at a liberal arts school, popular majors at Reed are things like psychology, political science, history.
But for the past 50 years, Reed students have had access to a scientific instrument that many people have never even seen before.
The blue glow just looks so amazing in person, and it doesn't look like anything else on Earth.
Which it's effectively like the sonic boom when something breaks the sound barrier, except for it's with light, and the blue glow are all of those light booms that are being emitted by those electrons.
And why is there a glowing blue pool of irradiated water at Reed? Well, because there's a nuclear reactor sitting at the bottom of that pool.
[upbeat music] I'm Dylan Thuras, and this is Atlas Obscura, celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places.
Today, we're going to the world's only nuclear reactor operated by liberal arts undergraduates, and we're gonna find out what happens when you go in the deep end.
[curious music] Reed College is a quintessential liberal arts school in the Northwest.
As you might expect at a liberal arts school, popular majors at Reed are things like psychology, political science, history.
But for the past 50 years, Reed students have had access to a scientific instrument that many people have never even seen before.
The blue glow just looks so amazing in person, and it doesn't look like anything else on Earth.
Which it's effectively like the sonic boom when something breaks the sound barrier, except for it's with light, and the blue glow are all of those light booms that are being emitted by those electrons.
And why is there a glowing blue pool of irradiated water at Reed? Well, because there's a nuclear reactor sitting at the bottom of that pool.
[upbeat music] I'm Dylan Thuras, and this is Atlas Obscura, celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places.
Today, we're going to the world's only nuclear reactor operated by liberal arts undergraduates, and we're gonna find out what happens when you go in the deep end.
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3 of 7
The Reactor Shields Its Workers
Why this reactor is safer than expected
A Reactor Led By Women
This reactor community looks nothing like expected
Liberal Arts Students Run Reactors
Students from every major learn nuclear operations
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