Reed College Research Reactor

Reed College, a small, academically rigorous liberal arts college in the Eastmoreland neighbourhood, is known nationally for its unconventional approach to education — no grades until senior year, no fraternities, a student body that skews towards intellectual intensity. The campus is beautiful: brick buildings in a wooded setting around a central canyon and reed lake.

The TRIGA research reactor, housed in a low building on the east side of campus, is genuinely unique and offers occasional public tours. Reed also has a strong humanities programme and one of the country's more unusual graduation requirements: all senior theses must be defended orally before a faculty committee. The campus is accessible from SE 28th and Woodstock by bus or on foot from the Woodstock MAX station.

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Reed College has operated a TRIGA Mark I nuclear reactor since 1968, making it the only functioning nuclear reactor operated by an undergraduate liberal arts college in the world. The reactor is used for neutron activation analysis, neutron radiography, and student research. It runs at a maximum power of 250 kilowatts — far less than commercial reactors — and is licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Undergraduates are trained to operate it.

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