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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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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|Panel
Tuesday, February 4, 2025|3:20–5:00PM EST|Cumberland A
Session Chair:
Drew Thomas (INL)
Session Organizer:
Alternate Chair:
Olivia Blackmon (ORAU)
Community colleges have played a critical role in training the nuclear energy workforce and supporting emerging educational needs both from a regional and national standpoint. In 2007, the U.S. nuclear industry established the Nuclear Uniform Curriculum Program to support standardization of curriculum supported by industry. The success of NUCP resulted in numerous programs and the reinvigoration of interest in nuclear energy training within the community college system. Since 2007, programs supporting NUCP have continued to decline as the nuclear workforce landscape has shifted in a variety of ways. This panel will explore the origins and history of the NUCP, lessons learned from experiences of the 2000's and 2010's, and discuss what it takes to create viable and long-term workforce pathways, challenges around creating those pathways, and emerging workforce needs for next-generation nuclear reactor development.
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