Matthew Hertel

Background

About Matthew Hertel

I am very proud to be an Engineering Manager and the I&C Design Lead for the Xe-100 at X-energy in Rockville, Maryland. In these roles, I get the opportunity to work on the leading edge of reactor control system development and instrument design. I hope to be a part of the nuclear industry progression of advanced reactor research and development, as well as further my understanding of HTGR thermal hydraulics, plant control architecture, and advanced reactor instrumentation. The Xe-100 is the next generation of nuclear technology and will deliver safe, reliable, and sustainable energy at a time when we need clean and efficient power the most.I also own and operate my own company, Hertel R&D LLC, which provides consulting and engineering development services for thermal hydraulic testing facilities. In my time working on HTGR system validation as a graduate student at the High Temperature Test Facility (HTTF) at Oregon State University, I gained valuable experience with high temperature system design and development, which I can now utilize to assist my clients with their own testing facility development projects. In my role as Chief Engineer and CEO, I also work on developing, licensing, and advocating for advanced thermal instrumentation for emerging reactor technologies.My doctoral research at Oregon State University focused on development of advanced high temperature reactor instrumentation systems:• Instrumentation and data acquisition system hardware and software• Fabrication and testing of prototypical micro-scale sensor arrays for thermal hydraulic measurements• Efficient large scale sensor manufacturing techniques• Instrument array integrative analysis techniquesOther previous and current research areas include:• Development, construction, and testing of various thermal hydraulic testing facilities• Code verification and validation, system modeling• Data accessibility and visualization, research program integration• Autonomous control systems and cellular automata for reactor fuel systemsI completed my research program and received my doctorate in the fall of 2020 with the publication of my doctoral dissertation (Development of a Novel MEMS Thermal Sensor Array for Pebble Bed HTGRs) which is focused on describing the development and initial validation study for a proposed hybrid-electrical-resistance-thermal (HERTEL) sensor. This sensor is capable of detecting the onset of, and correcting for, calibration drift which commonly occurs in thermal instruments deployed in harsh environments.