Mariah Ramirez

Center for Nuclear Security Science and Policy Initiatives

Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station

Mariah Ramirez

Mariah_Ramirez_profile_picture

NSSPI Graduate
Graduate Certificate in Nuclear Security

M.S., 2021

Research Group: Safeguards Systems Analysis and Instrumentation

Short Bio:

Mariah Ramirez is a NSSPI graduate who earned a M.S. degree in nuclear engineering with a nonproliferation specialization in May of 2021. Ramirez worked with Dr. Sunil Chirayath and Dr. Charles M. Folden, III of the Chemistry Department and the Cyclotron Institute at Texas A&M. Ramirez is working towards the development of safeguard measures for neptunium-237 through the use of radiochemical processes, nuclear engineering concepts, and radiation detection applications to develop a methodology for measuring and detecting neptunium based off nuclear signatures for various storage types. This is beneficial for safeguards because it enhances nuclear material accountancy and control.

Ramirez earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Physics, Radiation Option, from the University of Texas at Austin in 2017 and plans to receive her Master’s degree from Texas A&M University in May 2020. Her Master’s work will look at various MCNP models and simulations of various fuel assemblies for varying reactor types to quantify the amount of neptunium expected. This will further be supported through radiochemical separations of irradiated fuel samples.

In 2020, Ramirez was awarded a Seaborg Institute Graduate Research Fellowship to study at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

NSSPI Publications:

  1. M.M. Ramirez, "Safeguards Analysis for Neptunium-237 in High-Level Waste Through Computational and Radiochemical Methods", M.S. Thesis, Nuclear Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX (2021).

  2. 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.

  3. J. King, S. Chirayath, E. Aboud, V. Bautista, P. Behne, H. Boo, R. Brownfield, J. Chisholm, K. Cook, A. Edwin, H. Kistle, P. O’Neal, E. Ordonez, M. Ramirez, S. Ricketts, R. Suh, "Safety Evaluation of a Spent Fuel Dry-Storage Canister with Various Fill Materials", Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, 120 (2019).