Matthew Weathered
Manager, Reactor Technology Development and Testing Group
Biography
Dr. Matthew Weathered manages the Reactor Technology Development and Testing Group in the Nuclear Science and Engineering Division at Argonne National Laboratory. His expertise is in the design of components and instrumentation for high temperature liquid metal systems used in advanced nuclear reactors.
He manages the Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop (METL), a 2,800-liter liquid sodium facility capable of testing small to intermediate scale test articles for the commissioning of reactor components and instrumentation. He is also the principal investigator for the Thermal Hydraulic Experimental Test Article (THETA), a 500-liter electrically heated liquid sodium facility (located within METL) used to validate computational simulations for sodium-cooled nuclear reactors.
Dr. Weathered is a member of the Generation IV International Forum, has served as an IAEA consultant for technical meetings on fast reactors and was a previous guest editor for the ASME Journal of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science.
Education
- Ph.D., Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2017
- M.S., Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2017
- B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern University, 2013
Selected Publications and Patents
- M. Weathered, C. Grandy “A Thermal Hydraulic Experimental Facility for Sodium Cooled Reactor Development,” ASME J of Nuclear Rad Sci, 2025.
- M. Weathered, C. Grandy, M. Anderson, and D. Lisowski “High Temperature Sodium Submersible Flowmeter Design and Analysis,” IEEE Sensors Journal, 2021.
- M. Weathered and M. Anderson, “On the Development of a Robust Optical Fiber Based Level Sensor,” IEEE Sensors Journal, 2018.
- M. Weathered, J. Rein, M. Anderson, P. Brooks, and B. Coddington, “Characterization of Thermal Striping in Liquid Sodium with Optical Fiber Sensors,” ASME J of Nuclear Rad Sci, 2017.
- M. Weathered, “Optical Fiber Thermal Property Probe,” United States Patent 11125945, 2021.
- M. Weathered and C. Grandy, “Overview of a Sodium Fast Reactor Thermal Hydraulic Test Facility,” International Conference on Fast Reactors and Related Fuel Cycles (FR22), 2022.
- M. Weathered, ”Designing a High Temperature and Radiation Resistant Magnetic Pump Coupler for VTR Cartridge Test Loops,” ANS Virtual Winter Meeting 2020, 2020.
- M. Weathered, ”Development of a Liquid Sodium Thermal Hydraulic Facility,” ANS Winter Meeting and Expo 2019, Washington D.C, 2019.
- M. Weathered and M. Anderson “On the Development of Optical Fiber Temperature Sensors to Characterize High Frequency Phenomena in Sodium Fast Reactors,” NURETH-17, Xi’an, 2017.
- M. Weathered and M. Anderson, “Development of Optical Fiber Instrumentation for use in Sodium Cooled Fast Reactors,” NURETH-16, Chicago, 2015.
- M. Weathered and M. Anderson, “Development of Optical Fiber Sensors for use in Sodium Cooled Reactor Instrumentation,” ANS Winter Meeting, Anaheim, 2014.