ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
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
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.
Advances in Nuclear Fuel Management (ANFM 2025)
Dr. Aladar Csontos is the Director of Fuels at the Nuclear Energy Institute leading the industry's Power Uprate Task Force and Accident Tolerant Fuels Working Group with the goals to increase the amount of carbon-free electricity to the grid and deploy advanced fuels with increased enrichment and higher burnups with accident tolerant features. Prior to NEI, he was a Technical Executive at the Electric Power Research Institute in the Fuel, Chemistry, Low-Level Waste and High-Level Waste group. Prior to EPRI, he spent 16 years at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in various technical and leadership roles. He led teams of engineers responsible for technical safety reviews of transportation cask designs, spent fuel storage cask designs, independent spent fuel storage renewals and directed multi-disciplinary staff with expertise in non-destructive testing, materials science, and mechanical engineering focused on structural integrity issues of reactor components. Prior to NRC, he worked at the Center for Naval Analyses and conducted operational research studies for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Dr. Csontos received his degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University (B.S) and University of Virginia (Master’s & Ph.D). Some of his awards include the 2006 Joint Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society and Japanese Institute of Metals Young Leader International Scholar Award, 2003 Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society Young Leader Professional Development Award, most outstanding technical research paper of 2002 by the Society of Automotive Engineers, and the Professor Robert B. Pond, Sr. Undergraduate Achievement Award. He is also a graduate of the U.S. Army Airborne Infantry School and authored over 40 journal publications.
Last modified April 11, 2025, 5:04pm EDT