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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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Sep 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
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.
View Recipients
Downloads: View Letter|Intent to Participate and Guidelines|Judges' Evaluation Form
Intent and Report Deadline
June 24, 2025
Presented at the
Winter Conference
Travel Assistance
$1,000
(for each team)
The Student Design Competition promotes excellence in the design aspects of nuclear engineering education at universities.
Any university is eligible to submit solutions to nuclear engineering design problems, but participants must have a university affiliation and a faculty member as an advisor. Each university must review solutions by its students and select the best from each category (Graduate and Undergraduate) for submission. Four finalist teams will be selected for presentation at the ANS Winter Conference. Graduate and undergraduate teams will be evaluated in the same competition. A maximum of two Graduate Finalist teams will be selected.
The names of the finalists and their schools are announced prior to the ANS Winter Conference.
Certificates are presented to each finalist in the undergraduate and graduate categories. Travel assistance (up to $1,000 per school) is provided to students to attend the ANS Winter Conference for the competition. Students presenting at the conference must be ANS members and must register for the meeting (Student rate provided). Students are encouraged to sign up for the Student Program which provides complementary registration.
The Education, Training, and Workforce Development Division established this competition in 1975 to promote excellence in the design aspect of nuclear engineering education at universities. A key feature of the program is industry participation in the judging of the annual design problem.
This award is administered by the Education, Training, and Workforce Development Division (ETWDD) who establishes the evaluation criteria and determines the recipients.
A call for submission of nuclear engineering-related design problems is issued in February, the intent to participate, and the actual reports must be submitted by the published deadline. The final judging to select the top two design projects in both the Undergraduate and Graduate categories is completed in September. These four project teams are then invited to make presentations at the ANS Winter Conference for final judging.
The ANS Honors and Awards Committee is available for consultation and review of criteria and procedures as appropriate.
For more information, please visit the Education, Training, Workforce and Development Division website or the Student Sections website.
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