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106-617: Old Dorm Block is a building on the Reed College campus in Portland, Oregon , in the United States. It was built in 1912 and remodeled in 1992. This article about a university or college in Oregon is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about a building or structure in Oregon is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Reed College Reed College

212-512: A narrative evaluation . According to the school, "a conventional letter grade for each course is recorded for every student, but the registrar's office does not distribute grades to students, provided that work continues at satisfactory (C or higher) levels. Unsatisfactory grades are reported directly to the student and the student's adviser. Papers and exams are generally returned to students with lengthy comments but without grades affixed." Students can request copies of their official transcript from

318-500: A natural spring that drains into Johnson Creek . Canyon Day, a tradition dating back to 1915, is held twice a year. On Canyon Day students and Reed neighbors join canyon crew workers to spend a day helping with restoration efforts. A landmark of the campus, the Blue Bridge , spans the canyon. This bridge replaced the unique cantilevered bridge that served in that spot between 1959 and 1991, which "featured stressed plywood girders –

424-475: A nuclear proliferation risk as they can be configured to produce plutonium , as well as tritium gas used in boosted fission weapons . Reactor spent fuel can be reprocessed to yield up to 25% more nuclear fuel, which can be used in reactors again. Reprocessing can also significantly reduce the volume of nuclear waste, and has been practiced in Europe, Russia, India and Japan. Due to concerns of proliferation risks,

530-553: A " neutron howitzer ") produced a barium residue, which they reasoned was created by fission of the uranium nuclei. In their second publication on nuclear fission in February 1939, Hahn and Strassmann predicted the existence and liberation of additional neutrons during the fission process, opening the possibility of a nuclear chain reaction . Subsequent studies in early 1939 (one of them by Szilárd and Fermi), revealed that several neutrons were indeed released during fission, making available

636-534: A campus-wide email that the course curriculum would be restructured after years of faculty discussion and in response to student feedback as well as input from an external review committee composed of humanities faculty from other institutes, adopting a "four-module structure" that would include texts from the Americas and allow greater flexibility in the curriculum which would be integrated beginning fall 2018. The external review had not in fact been completed nor reviewed at

742-441: A crucial role in generating large amounts of electricity with low carbon emissions, contributing significantly to the global energy mix. Just as conventional thermal power stations generate electricity by harnessing the thermal energy released from burning fossil fuels , nuclear reactors convert the energy released by controlled nuclear fission into thermal energy for further conversion to mechanical or electrical forms. When

848-490: A dorm for students interested in outdoors activities (hiking, climbing, bicycling, kayaking, skiing, etc.). The college's least-loved complex (as measured by applications to the college's housing lottery), MacNaughton and Foster-Scholz, is known on campus as "Asylum Block" because of its post-World War II modernist architecture and interior spaces dominated by long, straight corridors lined with identical doors, said by students to resemble that of an insane asylum . Until 2006, it

954-445: A gas or a liquid metal (like liquid sodium or lead) or molten salt – is circulated past the reactor core to absorb the heat that it generates. The heat is carried away from the reactor and is then used to generate steam. Most reactor systems employ a cooling system that is physically separated from the water that will be boiled to produce pressurized steam for the turbines , like the pressurized water reactor . However, in some reactors

1060-432: A housing lottery after freshman year. The new building is also designed to meet "LEED Platinum standards", and Reed is currently evaluating proposals to put solar panels on the roof. The Reed College Canyon, a natural area and national wildlife preserve, bisects the campus, separating the academic buildings from many of the residence halls (the so-called cross-canyon halls ). The canyon is filled by Crystal Creek Springs,

1166-442: A large fissile atomic nucleus such as uranium-235 , uranium-233 , or plutonium-239 absorbs a neutron, it may undergo nuclear fission. The heavy nucleus splits into two or more lighter nuclei, (the fission products ), releasing kinetic energy , gamma radiation , and free neutrons . A portion of these neutrons may be absorbed by other fissile atoms and trigger further fission events, which release more neutrons, and so on. This

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1272-424: A less effective moderator. In other reactors, the coolant acts as a poison by absorbing neutrons in the same way that the control rods do. In these reactors, power output can be increased by heating the coolant, which makes it a less dense poison. Nuclear reactors generally have automatic and manual systems to scram the reactor in an emergency shut down. These systems insert large amounts of poison (often boron in

1378-409: A liberal arts college. Reed is ranked fourth in the United States for the percentage of its graduates who earn a PhD. The Reed Institute (the legal name of the college) was founded in 1908 and held its first classes in 1911. Reed is named for Oregon pioneers Simeon Gannett Reed (1830–1895) and Amanda Reed (died 1904). Simeon was an entrepreneur involved in several enterprises, including trade on

1484-570: A number of ways: A kilogram of uranium-235 (U-235) converted via nuclear processes releases approximately three million times more energy than a kilogram of coal burned conventionally (7.2 × 10 joules per kilogram of uranium-235 versus 2.4 × 10 joules per kilogram of coal). The fission of one kilogram of uranium-235 releases about 19 billion kilocalories , so the energy released by 1 kg of uranium-235 corresponds to that released by burning 2.7 million kg of coal. A nuclear reactor coolant – usually water but sometimes

1590-461: A patent on reactors on 19 December 1944. Its issuance was delayed for 10 years because of wartime secrecy. "World's first nuclear power plant" is the claim made by signs at the site of the EBR-I , which is now a museum near Arco, Idaho . Originally called "Chicago Pile-4", it was carried out under the direction of Walter Zinn for Argonne National Laboratory . This experimental LMFBR operated by

1696-737: A pile (hence the name) of graphite blocks, embedded in which was natural uranium oxide 'pseudospheres' or 'briquettes'. Soon after the Chicago Pile, the Metallurgical Laboratory developed a number of nuclear reactors for the Manhattan Project starting in 1943. The primary purpose for the largest reactors (located at the Hanford Site in Washington ), was the mass production of plutonium for nuclear weapons. Fermi and Szilard applied for

1802-407: A planned typical lifetime of 30–40 years, though many of those have received renovations and life extensions of 15–20 years. Some believe nuclear power plants can operate for as long as 80 years or longer with proper maintenance and management. While most components of a nuclear power plant, such as steam generators, are replaced when they reach the end of their useful lifetime, the overall lifetime of

1908-534: A project done by a Reed professor of statistics and her students to investigate the mechanics of the ranking algorithm, attempting to see if Reed's ranking had been purposefully devalued because the school refused to submit its information to U.S. News. Previous investigations by Reed students to re-create U.S. News's statistical ranking algorithm found that Reed's correct 2019 rank was #38 instead of its assigned rank of #90. The Class of 2026 had 394 students. Median SAT scores were 690 math and 720 reading. The class

2014-457: A protest during her lecture on Sappho would amplify her pre-existing case of PTSD . In November 2017, Chris Bodenner of The Atlantic wrote about growing student resentment toward the tactics of RAR. In response to protests the faculty decided to undergo the decennial review process a year early, as well as to complete the process in three months instead of the usual year. In January 2018, Humanities 110 Chair professor Libby Drumm announced in

2120-471: A reactor. One such process is delayed neutron emission by a number of neutron-rich fission isotopes. These delayed neutrons account for about 0.65% of the total neutrons produced in fission, with the remainder (termed " prompt neutrons ") released immediately upon fission. The fission products which produce delayed neutrons have half-lives for their decay by neutron emission that range from milliseconds to as long as several minutes, and so considerable time

2226-518: A set of theoretical nuclear reactor designs. These are generally not expected to be available for commercial use before 2040–2050, although the World Nuclear Association suggested that some might enter commercial operation before 2030. Current reactors in operation around the world are generally considered second- or third-generation systems, with the first-generation systems having been retired some time ago. Research into these reactor types

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2332-573: A wooded wetland known as Reed Canyon. Portland architect A. E. Doyle developed a plan, never implemented in full, modeled on the University of Oxford's St. John's College . The original campus buildings (including the Library, the Old Dorm Block , and what is now the primary administration building, Eliot Hall ) are brick Tudor Gothic buildings in a style similar to Ivy League campuses. In contrast,

2438-777: Is 370 feet (110 m) long, about a third longer than the Blue Bridge, and "connect[s] the new north campus quad to Gray Campus Center, the student union, the library, and academic buildings on the south side of campus". Nuclear reactor Nuclear reactors have their origins in the World War II Allied Manhattan Project . The world's first artificial nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, achieved criticality on 2 December 1942. Early reactor designs sought to produce weapons-grade plutonium for fission bombs , later incorporating grid electricity production in addition. In 1957, Shippingport Atomic Power Station became

2544-467: Is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon , United States. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, Tudor - Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at its center. Reed alumni include 123 Fulbright Scholars , 73 Watson Fellows , and three Churchill Scholars . Its 32 Rhodes Scholars are the second-most for

2650-747: Is also a Humanities Senior Symposium. Reed also offers interdisciplinary programs in American studies, Environmental Studies, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Chemistry-Physics, Classics-Religion, Dance/Theatre, History-Literature, International and Comparative Policy Studies (ICPS), Literature-Theatre, Mathematics-Economics, and Mathematics-Physics. Reed offers dual-degree programs in Computer Science (with University of Washington ), Engineering (with Caltech , Columbia University , and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute ), Forestry or Environmental Management (with Duke University ), and Fine Art (with

2756-413: Is inserted deeper into the reactor, it absorbs more neutrons than the material it displaces – often the moderator. This action results in fewer neutrons available to cause fission and reduces the reactor's power output. Conversely, extracting the control rod will result in an increase in the rate of fission events and an increase in power. The physics of radioactive decay also affects neutron populations in

2862-428: Is known as a nuclear chain reaction . To control such a nuclear chain reaction, control rods containing neutron poisons and neutron moderators are able to change the portion of neutrons that will go on to cause more fission. Nuclear reactors generally have automatic and manual systems to shut the fission reaction down if monitoring or instrumentation detects unsafe conditions. The reactor core generates heat in

2968-405: Is mined, processed, enriched, used, possibly reprocessed and disposed of is known as the nuclear fuel cycle . Under 1% of the uranium found in nature is the easily fissionable U-235 isotope and as a result most reactor designs require enriched fuel. Enrichment involves increasing the percentage of U-235 and is usually done by means of gaseous diffusion or gas centrifuge . The enriched result

3074-510: Is not Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Chicago, or Stanford. It is the most intellectual college in the country — Reed in Portland, Oregon." Since the 1960s, Reed has had a reputation for tolerating open drug use among its students. The Insider's Guide to the Colleges , written by the staff of Yale Daily News , notes an impression among students of institutional permissiveness: "According to students,

3180-401: Is produced. Fission also produces iodine-135 , which in turn decays (with a half-life of 6.57 hours) to new xenon-135. When the reactor is shut down, iodine-135 continues to decay to xenon-135, making restarting the reactor more difficult for a day or two, as the xenon-135 decays into cesium-135, which is not nearly as poisonous as xenon-135, with a half-life of 9.2 hours. This temporary state is

3286-449: Is ranked first in producing PhDs in biology , second in chemistry and humanities , third in history, foreign languages , and political science , fourth in science and mathematics , fifth in physics and social sciences , sixth in anthropology , seventh in area and ethnic studies and linguistics , and eighth in English literature and medicine . Reed's debating team was awarded

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3392-448: Is reaching or crossing their design lifetimes of 30 or 40 years. In 2014, Greenpeace warned that the lifetime extension of ageing nuclear power plants amounts to entering a new era of risk. It estimated the current European nuclear liability coverage in average to be too low by a factor of between 100 and 1,000 to cover the likely costs, while at the same time, the likelihood of a serious accident happening in Europe continues to increase as

3498-416: Is required to determine exactly when a reactor reaches the critical point. Keeping the reactor in the zone of chain reactivity where delayed neutrons are necessary to achieve a critical mass state allows mechanical devices or human operators to control a chain reaction in "real time"; otherwise the time between achievement of criticality and nuclear meltdown as a result of an exponential power surge from

3604-493: The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) investigation. According to an article in the college's alumni magazine, "because of the decisive support expressed by Reed's faculty, students, and alumni for the three besieged teachers and for the principle of academic freedom, Reed College's experience with McCarthyism stands apart from that of most other American colleges and universities. Elsewhere in

3710-484: The Manhattan Project . Eventually, the first artificial nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1 , was constructed at the University of Chicago , by a team led by Italian physicist Enrico Fermi, in late 1942. By this time, the program had been pressured for a year by U.S. entry into the war. The Chicago Pile achieved criticality on 2 December 1942 at 3:25 PM. The reactor support structure was made of wood, which supported

3816-514: The PWR , BWR and PHWR designs above, and some are more radical departures. The former include the advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR), two of which are now operating with others under construction, and the planned passively safe Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR) and AP1000 units (see Nuclear Power 2010 Program ). Rolls-Royce aims to sell nuclear reactors for the production of synfuel for aircraft. Generation IV reactors are

3922-540: The Pacific Northwest College of Art ). In 1995, Reed College refused to participate in the U.S. News & World Report "best colleges" rankings, making it the first educational institution in the United States to refuse to participate in college rankings. According to Reed's Office of Admissions the school's refusal to participate is based in 1994 disclosures by The Wall Street Journal about institutions flagrantly manipulating data in order to move up in

4028-515: The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission produced 0.8 kW in a test on 20 December 1951 and 100 kW (electrical) the following day, having a design output of 200 kW (electrical). Besides the military uses of nuclear reactors, there were political reasons to pursue civilian use of atomic energy. U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower made his famous Atoms for Peace speech to the UN General Assembly on 8 December 1953. This diplomacy led to

4134-603: The Willamette and Columbia Rivers with his close friend and associate, former Portland Mayor William S. Ladd . Unitarian minister Thomas Lamb Eliot , who knew the Reeds from the church choir, is credited with convincing Reed of the need for the school. Reed's will provided for the gift, and Ladd's son, William Mead Ladd, donated 40 acres from the Ladd Estate Company to build the new college. Reed's first president (1910–1919)

4240-571: The Woodstock and Eastmoreland Portland neighborhoods are traditionally rented to Reed students. On February 21, 2018, Reed announced the construction of the "largest residence hall in its history". Completed in Fall 2019, Trillium houses an additional 180 students, boosting Reed's housing capacity to nearly 80% of the student body, up from 68%. The addition of Trillium guarantees housing for both freshman and sophomores, as students were formerly subjected to

4346-477: The coolant also acts as a neutron moderator . A moderator increases the power of the reactor by causing the fast neutrons that are released from fission to lose energy and become thermal neutrons. Thermal neutrons are more likely than fast neutrons to cause fission. If the coolant is a moderator, then temperature changes can affect the density of the coolant/moderator and therefore change power output. A higher temperature coolant would be less dense, and therefore

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4452-402: The "iodine pit." If the reactor has sufficient extra reactivity capacity, it can be restarted. As the extra xenon-135 is transmuted to xenon-136, which is much less a neutron poison, within a few hours the reactor experiences a "xenon burnoff (power) transient". Control rods must be further inserted to replace the neutron absorption of the lost xenon-135. Failure to properly follow such a procedure

4558-463: The 15th "most rigorous" college in the nation. Reed College ranked in the bottom 6% of four year colleges nationwide in the Brookings Institution's rating of U.S. colleges by incremental impact on alumni earnings 10 years post-enrollment. An episode of Malcolm Gladwell's podcast Revisionist History examines the flaws in the U.S. News system of university rankings. The episode features

4664-465: The 1930s, President Dexter Keezer was concerned about the fraternization among male and female students and the consumption of alcohol by students. A large portion of the Student Council took the position that Oregon's liquor laws did not apply to Reed's campus. Policies restricting the ability of students from visiting the dormitories of the opposite sex were fiercely resisted. After World War II

4770-566: The 1986 Chernobyl disaster and 2011 Fukushima disaster . As of 2022 , the International Atomic Energy Agency reported there are 422 nuclear power reactors and 223 nuclear research reactors in operation around the world. The US Department of Energy classes reactors into generations, with the majority of the global fleet being Generation II reactors constructed from the 1960s to 1990s, and Generation IV reactors currently in development. Reactors can also be grouped by

4876-413: The 2022–23 academic year, including tuition, fees and room-and-board, was $ 80,710. Indirect costs (books, supplies, transportation, personal expenses) could be another $ 3,950. For the 2022–23 academic year, the average financial aid package was $ 52,284. In 2022–23 over half of students received financial aid from the college. In 2004, 1.4% of Reed graduates defaulted on their student loans – below

4982-594: The Birchwood Apartments complex and former medical administrative offices on either side of SE 28th Avenue, and the Parker House, across SE Woodstock from Prexy. At the same time the Willard House (donated to Reed in 1964), across from the college's main entrance at SE Woodstock and SE Reed College Place, was converted from faculty housing to administrative use. Reed announced on July 13, 2007, that it had purchased

5088-545: The College provides on-campus housing for 838 students". In Spring 2007, the college broke ground on the construction of a new quadrangle called the Grove, with four new Leed certified residence halls (Aspen, Sequoia, Sitka, Bidwell). They opened on the northwest side of campus in Fall 2008. A new Spanish House residence was completed. Together, the five new residences added 142 new beds. Reed also has off-campus housing. Many houses in

5194-535: The Hebrew Bible and ancient Jewish history , and as of 2019, Ancient Mesoamerica and the Harlem Renaissance. Reed also has a TRIGA research reactor on campus, making it the only school in the United States to have a nuclear reactor operated primarily by undergraduates. Reed also requires all students to complete a thesis (a two-semester-long research project conducted under the guidance of professors) during

5300-515: The Reed administration chose to call the police following the discovery of "two to three pounds of marijuana and a small amount of ecstasy and LSD in the on-campus apartment of two juniors." Following campus debate, Reed's president at the time, Colin Diver, issued a letter to students and staff, saying the college would not tolerate illegal drug use on campus: "Such behavior endangers the health and welfare of

5406-689: The Rivelli farm, a 1.5-acre (0.61  ha ) tract of land south of the Garden House and west of Botsford Drive. Reed's "immediate plans for the acquired property include housing a small number of students in the former Rivelli home during the 2007–08 academic year. Longer term, the college anticipates that it may seek to develop the northern portion of the property for additional student housing". Reed houses 945 students in 18 residence halls on campus and several college-owned houses and apartment buildings on or adjacent to campus. Residence halls on campus range from

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5512-602: The U.S. News scoring rubric. Money magazine ranked Reed 512th in the U.S. out of 623 schools evaluated for its 2022 "Best Colleges for Your Money" edition. Reed is ranked as tied for the 72nd best liberal arts college by U.S. News & World Report in its 2022 rankings, and tied for 16th in "Best Undergraduate Teaching", tied for 13th in "Most Innovative Schools", and tied for 185th in "Top Performers on Social Mobility". In 2006, Newsweek magazine named Reed as one of twenty-five "New Ivies", listing it among "the nation's elite colleges". In 2012, Newsweek ranked Reed

5618-708: The U.S. military sought other uses for nuclear reactor technology. Research by the Army led to the power stations for Camp Century, Greenland and McMurdo Station, Antarctica Army Nuclear Power Program . The Air Force Nuclear Bomber project resulted in the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment . The U.S. Navy succeeded when they steamed the USS Nautilus (SSN-571) on nuclear power 17 January 1955. The first commercial nuclear power station, Calder Hall in Sellafield , England

5724-472: The United States does not engage in or encourage reprocessing. Reactors are also used in nuclear propulsion of vehicles. Nuclear marine propulsion of ships and submarines is largely restricted to naval use. Reactors have also been tested for nuclear aircraft propulsion and spacecraft propulsion . Reactor safety is maintained through various systems that control the rate of fission. The insertion of control rods, which absorb neutrons, can rapidly decrease

5830-418: The academic world both tenured and nontenured professors with alleged or admitted communist party ties were fired with relatively little fuss or protest. At Reed, however, opposition to the political interrogations of the teachers was so strong that some believed the campus was in danger of closure." A statement of "regret" by the Reed administration and Board of Trustees was published in 1981, formally revising

5936-565: The area was contaminated, like Fukushima, Three Mile Island, Sellafield, and Chernobyl. The British branch of the French concern EDF Energy , for example, extended the operating lives of its Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors (AGR) with only between 3 and 10 years. All seven AGR plants were expected to be shut down in 2022 and in decommissioning by 2028. Hinkley Point B was extended from 40 to 46 years, and closed. The same happened with Hunterston B , also after 46 years. An increasing number of reactors

6042-630: The basketball, rugby, Ultimate Frisbee, and soccer teams. Reed categorizes its academic program into five Divisions and the Humanities program. Overall, Reed offers five Humanities courses, twenty-six department majors, twelve interdisciplinary majors, six dual-degree programs with other colleges and universities, and programs for pre-medical and pre-veterinary students. Its three most popular majors, based on 2023 graduates, were Psychology, Biology/Biological Sciences, and Computer and Information Sciences. Reed President Richard Scholz in 1922 called

6148-770: The beginning of his quest to produce the Einstein-Szilárd letter to alert the U.S. government. Shortly after, Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939, starting World War II in Europe. The U.S. was not yet officially at war, but in October, when the Einstein-Szilárd letter was delivered to him, Roosevelt commented that the purpose of doing the research was to make sure "the Nazis don't blow us up." The U.S. nuclear project followed, although with some delay as there remained skepticism (some of it from Enrico Fermi ) and also little action from

6254-458: The choices of coolant and moderator. Almost 90% of global nuclear energy comes from pressurized water reactors and boiling water reactors , which use water as a coolant and moderator. Other designs include heavy water reactors , gas-cooled reactors , and fast breeder reactors , variously optimizing efficiency, safety, and fuel type , enrichment , and burnup . Small modular reactors are also an area of current development. These reactors play

6360-450: The class deemed racist by the protestors was the use of the 1978 Steve Martin song "King Tut" in a discussion about cultural appropriation . Students began a protest campaign against the curriculum by sitting in during lectures with signs with quotations from various African-American and non-white academics. Other protests separate from the Humanities course also included efforts to shout down speakers, including Kimberly Peirce after she

6466-539: The college saw its enrollment numbers dramatically increase as veterans began enrolling in the college. The college has developed a reputation for the political progressivism of its student body. According to sociologist Burton Clark, Reed is one of the most unusual institutions of higher learning in the United States, featuring a traditional liberal arts and natural sciences curriculum. It requires freshmen to take Humanities 110, an intensive introduction to multidisciplinary inquiry, covering ancient Greece and Rome,

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6572-467: The complexities of handling actinides , but significant scientific and technical obstacles remain. Despite research having started in the 1950s, no commercial fusion reactor is expected before 2050. The ITER project is currently leading the effort to harness fusion power. Thermal reactors generally depend on refined and enriched uranium . Some nuclear reactors can operate with a mixture of plutonium and uranium (see MOX ). The process by which uranium ore

6678-660: The dissemination of reactor technology to U.S. institutions and worldwide. The first nuclear power plant built for civil purposes was the AM-1 Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant , launched on 27 June 1954 in the Soviet Union . It produced around 5 MW (electrical). It was built after the F-1 (nuclear reactor) which was the first reactor to go critical in Europe, and was also built by the Soviet Union. After World War II,

6784-541: The drug death was an isolated incident or part of a larger problem. "When you say Reed," Diver said, "two words often come to mind. One is brains. One is drugs." Local reporter James Pitkin of the newspaper Willamette Week editorialized that "Reed College, a private school with one of the most prestigious academic programs in the U.S., is one of the last schools in the country where students enjoy almost unlimited freedom to experiment openly with drugs, with little or no hassles from authorities", though Willamette Week stated

6890-418: The educational program as a whole "an honest effort to disregard old historic rivalries and hostilities between the sciences and the arts, between professional and cultural subjects, and,   ... the formal chronological cleavage between the graduate and the undergraduate attitude of mind". The Humanities program, which came into being in 1943 (as the union of two year-long courses, one in "world" literature,

6996-485: The energy of the neutrons that sustain the fission chain reaction : In principle, fusion power could be produced by nuclear fusion of elements such as the deuterium isotope of hydrogen . While an ongoing rich research topic since at least the 1940s, no self-sustaining fusion reactor for any purpose has ever been built. Used by thermal reactors: In 2003, the French Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique (CEA)

7102-487: The entire community, attracts potentially dangerous criminal activity on campus, undermines the academic mission of the college, and violates the college's obligations under state and federal law." Reed has a reputation for being politically left-of-center. During the McCarthy era of the 1950s, then-President Duncan Ballantine fired Marxist philosopher Stanley Moore , a tenured professor, for his failure to cooperate with

7208-553: The first place sweepstakes trophy for Division II schools at the final tournament of the Northwest Forensics Conference in February 2004. Loren Pope , former education editor for The New York Times , writes about Reed in Colleges That Change Lives , saying, "If you're a genuine intellectual, love the life of the mind, and want to learn for the sake of learning, the place most likely to empower you

7314-638: The first reactor dedicated to peaceful use; in Russia, in 1954, the first small nuclear power reactor APS-1 OBNINSK reached criticality. Other countries followed suit. Heat from nuclear fission is passed to a working fluid coolant (water or gas), which in turn runs through turbines . In commercial reactors, turbines drive electrical generator shafts. The heat can also be used for district heating , and industrial applications including desalination and hydrogen production . Some reactors are used to produce isotopes for medical and industrial use. Reactors pose

7420-401: The first time this construction had been used on a span of this size: a straight bridge 132 feet (40 m) long and 15 feet (4.6 m) high. It attracted great architectural interest during its lifetime". A new pedestrian and bicycle bridge spanning the canyon was opened in Fall 2008. This bridge, dubbed the "Bouncy Bridge", "Orange Bridge", and in some cases the "Amber Bridge" by students,

7526-407: The fission process generates heat, some of which can be converted into usable energy. A common method of harnessing this thermal energy is to use it to boil water to produce pressurized steam which will then drive a steam turbine that turns an alternator and generates electricity. Modern nuclear power plants are typically designed for a lifetime of 60 years, while older reactors were built with

7632-609: The following week concerning Pitkin's editorial: "As of press time, almost 500 responses, many expressing harsh criticism of Willamette Week , had been posted on our website." In March 2010, another student died of drug-related causes in his off-campus residence. This led The New York Times to conclude that "Reed   ... has long been known almost as much for its unusually permissive atmosphere as for its impressively rigorous academics." Law enforcement authorities promised to take action, including sending undercover agents to Reed's annual Renn Fayre celebration. In February 2012,

7738-529: The form of boric acid ) into the reactor to shut the fission reaction down if unsafe conditions are detected or anticipated. Most types of reactors are sensitive to a process variously known as xenon poisoning, or the iodine pit . The common fission product Xenon-135 produced in the fission process acts as a neutron poison that absorbs neutrons and therefore tends to shut the reactor down. Xenon-135 accumulation can be controlled by keeping power levels high enough to destroy it by neutron absorption as fast as it

7844-424: The fuel rods. This allows the reactor to be constructed with an excess of fissionable material, which is nevertheless made relatively safe early in the reactor's fuel burn cycle by the presence of the neutron-absorbing material which is later replaced by normally produced long-lived neutron poisons (far longer-lived than xenon-135) which gradually accumulate over the fuel load's operating life. The energy released in

7950-447: The idea of nuclear fission as a neutron source, since that process was not yet discovered. Szilárd's ideas for nuclear reactors using neutron-mediated nuclear chain reactions in light elements proved unworkable. Inspiration for a new type of reactor using uranium came from the discovery by Otto Hahn , Lise Meitner , and Fritz Strassmann in 1938 that bombardment of uranium with neutrons (provided by an alpha-on-beryllium fusion reaction,

8056-482: The issue of police brutality against African-Americans . Following the boycott, students created an activist group called Reedies Against Racism (RAR) and presented a list of demands for the college purportedly on behalf of students from marginalized backgrounds. The primary demand concerned Reed's mandatory freshman Humanities course, proposing that the course either be changed to be more inclusive of world literature and classics or to be made not mandatory. One element of

8162-556: The judgment of the 1954 trustees. In 1993, then-President Steve Koblik invited Moore to visit the college, and in 1995 the last surviving member of the Board that fired Moore expressed his regret and apologized to him. On September 26, 2016, students organized a boycott of all college operations in participation with the National Day of Boycott, a national day of protest which was proposed by actor Isaiah Washington on Twitter in response to

8268-616: The mandatory freshman course Introduction to Western Humanities covering ancient Greek and Roman literature, history, art, religion, and philosophy. Sophomores, juniors, and seniors may take Early Modern Europe covering Renaissance thought and literature; Modern Humanities covering the Enlightenment , the French Revolution , the Industrial Revolution , and Modernism , and/or Foundations of Chinese Civilization . There

8374-691: The national Cohort Default Rate average of 5.1%. Reed's endowment as of June 30, 2023, was $ 764 million. In the economic downturn that began in late 2007, Reed's total endowment had declined from $ 455 million in June 2007 to $ 311 million in June 2009. By the end of 2013, however, the endowment surpassed the $ 500 million mark. Reed has produced the second-highest number of Rhodes scholars for any liberal arts college—32—as well as over one hundred Fulbright Scholars , over seventy Watson Fellows , and three MacArthur ("Genius") Award winners. A very high proportion of Reed graduates go on to earn PhDs, particularly in

8480-412: The natural sciences, history, political science , and philosophy. Reed is ranked third in the percentage of graduates who go on to earn PhDs in all disciplines, after only Caltech and Harvey Mudd . In 1961, Scientific American declared that second only to Caltech, "This small college in Oregon has been far and away more productive of future scientists than any other institution in the U.S." Reed

8586-449: The normal nuclear chain reaction, would be too short to allow for intervention. This last stage, where delayed neutrons are no longer required to maintain criticality, is known as the prompt critical point. There is a scale for describing criticality in numerical form, in which bare criticality is known as zero dollars and the prompt critical point is one dollar , and other points in the process interpolated in cents. In some reactors,

8692-581: The opportunity for the nuclear chain reaction that Szilárd had envisioned six years previously. On 2 August 1939, Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt (written by Szilárd) suggesting that the discovery of uranium's fission could lead to the development of "extremely powerful bombs of a new type", giving impetus to the study of reactors and fission. Szilárd and Einstein knew each other well and had worked together years previously, but Einstein had never thought about this possibility for nuclear energy until Szilard reported it to him, at

8798-481: The other in "world" history) is one manifestation of this effort. One change to the program was the addition of a course in Chinese Civilization in 1995. The faculty has also recently approved several significant changes to the introductory syllabus. These changes include expanding the parameters of the course to include more material regarding urban and cultural environments. Reed's Humanities program includes

8904-406: The physics of radioactive decay and are simply accounted for during the reactor's operation, while others are mechanisms engineered into the reactor design for a distinct purpose. The fastest method for adjusting levels of fission-inducing neutrons in a reactor is via movement of the control rods . Control rods are made of so-called neutron poisons and therefore absorb neutrons. When a control rod

9010-460: The power plant is limited by the life of components that cannot be replaced when aged by wear and neutron embrittlement , such as the reactor pressure vessel. At the end of their planned life span, plants may get an extension of the operating license for some 20 years and in the US even a "subsequent license renewal" (SLR) for an additional 20 years. Even when a license is extended, it does not guarantee

9116-443: The rankings in U.S. News and other popular college guides. U.S. News maintains that their rankings are "a very legitimate tool for getting at a certain level of knowledge about colleges." In 2019, a team of statistics students recreated the formula used by U.S. News and were able to identify and quantify the penalty imposed on Reed. The students found the college to be ranked an estimated 52 places below an unbiased application of

9222-563: The reactor fleet grows older. The neutron was discovered in 1932 by British physicist James Chadwick . The concept of a nuclear chain reaction brought about by nuclear reactions mediated by neutrons was first realized shortly thereafter, by Hungarian scientist Leó Szilárd , in 1933. He filed a patent for his idea of a simple reactor the following year while working at the Admiralty in London, England. However, Szilárd's idea did not incorporate

9328-416: The reactor will continue to operate, particularly in the face of safety concerns or incident. Many reactors are closed long before their license or design life expired and are decommissioned . The costs for replacements or improvements required for continued safe operation may be so high that they are not cost-effective. Or they may be shut down due to technical failure. Other ones have been shut down because

9434-437: The reactor's output, while other systems automatically shut down the reactor in the event of unsafe conditions. The buildup of neutron-absorbing fission products like xenon-135 can influence reactor behavior, requiring careful management to prevent issues such as the iodine pit , which can complicate reactor restarts. There have been two reactor accidents classed as an International Nuclear Event Scale Level 7 "major accident":

9540-410: The registrar. There is no dean's list or honor roll per se , but students who maintain a GPA of 3.5 or above for an academic year receive academic commendations at the end of the spring semester which are noted on their transcripts. Many Reed students graduate without knowing their cumulative GPA or their grades in individual classes. Reed is singled out as having little to no grade inflation over

9646-423: The school does not bust students for drug or alcohol use unless they cause harm or embarrassment to another student." In April 2008, student Alex Lluch died of a heroin overdose in his on-campus dorm room. His death prompted revelations of several previous incidents, including the near-death heroin overdose of another student only months earlier. College President Colin Diver said "I don't honestly know" whether

9752-640: The science section of campus, including the physics, biology, and psychology (originally chemistry) buildings, were designed in the Modernist style. The Psychology Building, completed in 1949, was designed by Modernist architect Pietro Belluschi at the same time as his celebrated Equitable Building in downtown Portland. The campus and buildings have undergone several phases of growth, and there are now 21 academic and administrative buildings and 18 residence halls. Since 2004, Reed's campus has expanded to include adjacent properties beyond its historic boundaries, such as

9858-402: The senior year as a prerequisite of graduation. Upon completion of the senior thesis, students must also pass an oral defense of ninety minutes related to the thesis topic and how the thesis relates to the larger context of the student's studies. Reed maintains a 9:1 student-to-faculty ratio. Although letter grades are given to students, grades are de-emphasized at Reed and focus is placed on

9964-637: The small number of officials in the government who were initially charged with moving the project forward. The following year, the U.S. Government received the Frisch–Peierls memorandum from the UK, which stated that the amount of uranium needed for a chain reaction was far lower than had previously been thought. The memorandum was a product of the MAUD Committee , which was working on the UK atomic bomb project, known as Tube Alloys , later to be subsumed within

10070-578: The time of the announcement. Following "a contentious year of protests, including an anti-racism sit-in in Kroger's office", college president John Kroger resigned, effective June 2018. The Reed College campus was established on a tract of land in southeast Portland known in 1910 as Crystal Springs Farm, a part of the Ladd Estate, formed in the 1870s from original land claims. The college's grounds include 116 acres (0.47 km ) of contiguous land, including

10176-558: The traditional (i.e., Gothic Old Dorm Block, referred to as "ODB") to the eclectic (e.g., Anna Mann, a Tudor-style cottage built in the 1920s by Reed's founding architect A. E. Doyle, originally used as a women's hall ), language houses (Spanish, Russian, French, German, and Chinese), "temporary" housing, built in the 1960s (Cross Canyon – Chittick, Woodbridge, McKinley, Griffin), to more recently built dorms (Bragdon, Naito, Sullivan). There are also theme residence halls including everything from substance-free living to Japanese culture to music to

10282-424: The water for the steam turbines is boiled directly by the reactor core ; for example the boiling water reactor . The rate of fission reactions within a reactor core can be adjusted by controlling the quantity of neutrons that are able to induce further fission events. Nuclear reactors typically employ several methods of neutron control to adjust the reactor's power output. Some of these methods arise naturally from

10388-670: The years; only ten students graduated with a perfect 4.0 GPA in the period from 1983 to 2012. (Transcripts are accompanied by a card contextualizing Reed's grading approach so as not to penalize students' graduate school applications.) Although Reed does not award Latin honors to graduates, it confers several awards for academic achievement at commencement, including naming students to Phi Beta Kappa . Reed has no fraternities or sororities and few NCAA sports teams although physical education classes (which range from kayaking to juggling to capoeira ) are required for graduation. Reed also has several intercollegiate athletic clubs, notably

10494-431: Was William Trufant Foster , a former professor at Bates College and Bowdoin College . Founded explicitly as a reaction against the "prevailing model of East Coast, Ivy League education", the college's lack of varsity athletics , fraternities , and exclusive social clubs – as well as its coeducational , nonsectarian , and egalitarian status — gave way to an intensely academic and intellectual college. During

10600-476: Was a key step in the Chernobyl disaster . Reactors used in nuclear marine propulsion (especially nuclear submarines ) often cannot be run at continuous power around the clock in the same way that land-based power reactors are normally run, and in addition often need to have a very long core life without refueling . For this reason many designs use highly enriched uranium but incorporate burnable neutron poison in

10706-532: Was accused of profiting from transphobia while making the film Boys Don't Cry . The group eventually focused on Reed's banking relationship with Wells Fargo , based on allegations that the bank had invested in the Dakota Access Pipeline project and the private prison industry, and staged an occupation of Reed's Eliot Hall. There was some opposition to the lecture protests, notably by Reed professor of English Lucía Martínez Valdivia, who stated that

10812-504: Was drawn from the largest pool ever— 9,023 applicants—and was the most selective in Reed's history, with an admittance rate of 30.8%. As of 2018 , to increase student enrollment from historically underrepresented minorities, Reed encourages application to the college's "Discover Reed Fly-In Program", an all-inclusive, all-expenses-paid, multi-day campus tour and open to all high school seniors who are US citizens or permanent residents, regardless of race or ethnicity. The total direct cost for

10918-781: Was officially started by the Generation ;IV International Forum (GIF) based on eight technology goals. The primary goals being to improve nuclear safety, improve proliferation resistance, minimize waste and natural resource utilization, and to decrease the cost to build and run such plants. Generation V reactors are designs which are theoretically possible, but which are not being actively considered or researched at present. Though some generation V reactors could potentially be built with current or near term technology, they trigger little interest for reasons of economics, practicality, or safety. Controlled nuclear fusion could in principle be used in fusion power plants to produce power without

11024-463: Was opened in 1956 with an initial capacity of 50 MW (later 200 MW). The first portable nuclear reactor "Alco PM-2A" was used to generate electrical power (2 MW) for Camp Century from 1960 to 1963. All commercial power reactors are based on nuclear fission . They generally use uranium and its product plutonium as nuclear fuel , though a thorium fuel cycle is also possible. Fission reactors can be divided roughly into two classes, depending on

11130-619: Was the first to refer to "Gen II" types in Nucleonics Week . The first mention of "Gen III" was in 2000, in conjunction with the launch of the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) plans. "Gen IV" was named in 2000, by the United States Department of Energy (DOE), for developing new plant types. More than a dozen advanced reactor designs are in various stages of development. Some are evolutionary from

11236-412: Was thought that these residence halls had been designed by architect Pietro Belluschi . Under the 10-year Campus Master Plan adopted in 2006, Foster-Scholz is scheduled to be demolished and replaced, and MacNaughton to be remodeled. According to the master plan, "The College's goal is to provide housing on or adjacent to the campus that accommodates 75% of the [full-time] student population. At present,

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