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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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Sep 2025
Jan 2025
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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.
Technical Session|Sponsored by MSTD
Wednesday, June 19, 2024|8:00–9:45AM PDT|Banyan A
Session Chair:
Jake R. Quincey
Session Organizer:
Alternate Chair:
Kenneth J. Geelhood
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Shielded Irradiation Facility Design for use in the High Flux Isotope Reactor
8:00–8:20AM PDT
Richard Howard (ORNL), Abby Till (ORNL), Zain Karriem (ORNL)
Paper
Current Status of the AMIS Ion Irradiation Facility at Argonne
8:20–8:40AM PDT
Peter Mouche (ANL), Laura Jamison (ANL), Brahim Mustapha (ANL), Yinbin Miao (ANL), William Limestall (ANL), Abdellatif Yacout (ANL)
Investigation of Gamma/Heavy Ion Irradiated Materials and Nuclear Graphite Studies by use of Positron Annihilation
8:40–9:00AM PDT
Jagoda Urban-Klaehn (INL), Tianyi Chen (Oregon State), Jacy K. Conrad (INL), Arvin Cunningham (INL), Anne Gaffney (INL), Spencer Doran (Oregon State), Di Chen (INL), Milad Ghayoor (Oregon State), Somayeh Pasebani (Oregon State)
Neutron PIE: Accelerating Post-Irradiation Examination with Advanced Neutron Imaging for Next-Gen. Nuclear Reactor Materials
9:00–9:20AM PDT
Alexander M. Long (LANL), Sven C. Vogel (LANL)
Microstructural Properties of Laser Welded 304 Austenitic Steel in Underwater Environment
9:20–9:30AM PDT
Danbi Song (Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials), Sujin Lee (Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials), Jungsoo Choi (Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials), Induck Park (Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials)
Application of CVD and CVI Techniques to Deposit ZrC Coatings on Complex Geometries
9:30–9:40AM PDT
Ryan Heldt (ORNL), Eddie Lopez-Honorato (ORNL), Tyler Gerczak (ORNL), Peter Doyle (ORNL), Grant Helmreich (ORNL), Katherine Montoya (ORNL), Dylan Richardson (ORNL)
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