Athena Sagadevan

Short Bio:

Athena Sagadevan earned her Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from Texas A&M University in the summer of 2020. She worked with Dr. Sunil Chirayath on a computational approach to develop remote monitoring system (RMS) designs to safeguard spent nuclear fuel that is placed in dry cask storage. Her work analyzed the RMS via MCNP simulations to obtain flux profiles on the contents of the dry cask to ensure no illicit activity is taking place. She built a prototype RMS, which was tested using fission sources that mimiced the signatures of spent nuclear fuel. Prior to joining Texas A&M University, Sagadevan completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s of Science in Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences at the University of Michigan in 2014 and 2016 respectively. Upon graduation, she joined Los Alamos National Laboratory in the Safeguards Science & Technology group.

NSSPI Publications:

1. A. Sagadevan S.S. Chirayath, "Experimental Verification of Proposed Internal Remote Monitoring System for Spent Nuclear Fuel Dry Cask Storage Applications", Nuclear Technology, 208 (2022).


2. A.A. Sagadevan S.S. Chirayath, "Design and Analysis of an Internal Remote Monitoring System for Spent Nuclear Fuel stored in a Dry Cask", Nuclear Technology, 208, 3 (2022).


3. A.A. Sagadevan S.S. Chirayath, "Design and Analysis of an Internal Remote Monitoring System for Spent Nuclear Fuel Stored in a Dry Cask", Nuclear Technology, available online (2021).


4. A. Sagadevan, "Safeguards Approach for Spent Nuclear Fuel in Dry Cask Storage using Remote Monitoring Systems", Ph.D. Dissertation, Nuclear Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX (2020).


5. A. Sagadevan, S.S. Chirayath, "Feasibility Study of Remote Monitoring Systems of Spent Nuclear Fuel Dry Cask Storage", 61st Annual Meeting of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management, Baltimore, Maryland, 12-16 July 2020.


6. A. Sagadevan S.S. Chirayath, "Safeguards Approaches for Remote Monitoring System of Spent Nuclear Fuel Dry Cask Storage", 2019 ANS Winter Meeting and Nuclear Technology Expo, Washington, D.C., 17 - 21 November 2019.


7. M.M. Mendoza, A.A. Sagadevan, J.N. Wagner, S.S. Chirayath, E.D. Kitcher, H. Rysz, L. Anuar, A. Perry, A. Maldonado, M. Ramirez, D. Mulyana, A. Edwin, S. Martinson, "Advanced Reactor Safeguards Workshop at Texas A&M University", Poster. 60th Annual Meeting of the Institute for Nuclear Materials Management (INMM), Palm Desert, California, 14-18 July 2019.


8. A. Sagadevan and S. Chirayath, "Information driven safeguards approach for remote monitoring system of dry cask storage", Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Available online 22 December 2018.


9. A. Sagadevan, S. Chirayath, A. Worrall, "Risk Informed Safeguards Approaches for Molten Salt Reactors", presented at 59th Annual Meeting of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management, Baltimore, Maryland, July 22-26, 2018.