About 30 small reactors at educational institutions around the country allow researchers to conduct experiments in a range of scientific fields. Only Reed College in Portland, Ore., though, offers the regular operation of its research reactor to undergraduates.
This video outlines the students and science behind the Reed Research Reactor. It details the controls and safety systems for the 230 kilowatt unit, as well as experiments using the "rabbit" system to shuttle samples into the core for irradiation prior to analysis with a gamma ray spectrometer. In addition to an aspiring scientist researching the physics behind Cherenkov radiation, the film also touches on student projects in fields as diverse as visual art and anthropology.
I don't know if things have changed, but the research reactor at UW-Madison (1 MW TRIGA) has had undergraduate reactor operators for most of its operating history. I was one of them. When I worked there (around 2000-2002) the only non-student operators were the Lab Director and the Lab Supervisor. While there were a mix of graduate and undergraduate operators, it was perfectly accessible to undergrads.
When I was at Texas A&M TRIGA I was a staff member with prior commercial SRO License, I was an operating supervisor. All SROs were facility staff members. ALL of our ROs were undergraduates full time and part-time RO
Other universities do allow their undergraduates to become licensed operators and often employ undergraduates as student workers at their reactor facilities. Reed may be unique in not having graduate students, though.