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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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August 2025
Latest News
From operator to entrepreneur: David Garcia applies outage management lessons
David Garcia
If ComEd’s Zion plant in northern Illinois hadn’t closed in 1998, David Garcia might still be there, where he got his start in nuclear power as an operator at age 24.
But in his ninth year working there, Zion closed, and Garcia moved on to a series of new roles—including at Wisconsin’s Point Beach plant, the corporate offices of Minnesota’s Xcel Energy, and on the supplier side at PaR Nuclear—into an on-the-job education that he augmented with degrees in business and divinity that he sought later in life.
Garcia started his own company—Waymaker Resource Group—in 2014. Recently, Waymaker has been supporting Holtec’s restart project at the Palisades plant with staffing and analysis. Palisades sits almost exactly due east of the fully decommissioned Zion site on the other side of Lake Michigan and is poised to operate again after what amounts to an extended outage of more than three years. Holtec also plans to build more reactors at the same site.
For Garcia, the takeaway is clear: “This industry is not going away. Nuclear power and the adjacent industries that support nuclear power—and clean energy, period—are going to be needed for decades upon decades.”
In July, Garcia talked with Nuclear News staff writer Susan Gallier about his career and what he has learned about running successful outages and other projects.
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Downloads: Download Nomination Form
Nomination Deadline
Anytime
Presented at the
Topical Meeting of Fusion Energy (TOFE) or the ANS Annual Conference
Monetary Award
TBD
The Fusion Energy Division Outstanding Achievement Award recognizes individuals with a continued history of exemplary achievement requiring professional excellence and leadership of a high caliber in the fusion science and engineering area. The purpose of this award is to promote to others that the ANS Fusion Energy Division encourages such technical accomplishment and recognizes its importance to fusion.
The award consists of an engraved plaque or an object of ornamental or useful type with intrinsic value . The award is presented at Topical Meeting of Fusion Energy (TOFE) or the ANS Annual Conference.
Nominees must be an ANS member, in the Fusion Energy Division, and must be living at the time of award selection. Specific criteria include:
The FED Outstanding Achievement Award was established in 1977 as a Division-Administered award by the ANS Fusion Energy Division.
Nominations are solicited through a bi-annual announcement in ANS publications and independent efforts of the Fusion Energy Division and through the channels of the Fusion Energy Division Topical Meeting on Fusion Energy (TOFE).
Nominations must include the completed nomination form accompanied by the following supporting documents:
Nomination forms and supporting documents (in Word or Adobe Acrobat) should be emailed to Jake Blanchard at jake.blanchard@wisc.edu and cc'd to honors@ans.org.
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