I have family who lived in and around Oak Ridge in the 50's. Some of them got booted to make way for the plant.
Legend has it one cousin was a technician at the plant, walking around with his clipboard up when he went through the wrong door. He stopped walking, looked down, and realized he was standing at the edge of the pool with the nuclear pile in it. He described the same blue glow.
Dropped the clipboard, quit his job and moved to the Bahamas to track satellites for NASA.