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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
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.
Technical Session
Wednesday, February 5, 2025|10:10–11:50AM EST|Cumberland B
Session Chair:
Dave Helling (Westinghouse Electric Co.)
Session Organizer:
Charles Lease
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Training Program Accreditation: Using Familiar Tools in a Different Way
10:10–10:22AM EST
Grant Herring (Plant Vogtle, Units 3 and 4)
Paper
Small Modular Training for Small Modular Reactors: Case Study for AP300
10:22–10:34AM EST
Jose M. Martin (Westinghouse Electric Co.)
Improving Fundamentals in Radiation Protection Training Through Realism
10:34–10:46AM EST
Gregory Gazda (James A. FitzPatrick Clean Energy Center), Timothy Sollenberger (James A. FitzPatrick Clean Energy Center)
Presentation Slides (Visible to Attendees)
Using AI to Create a New Question Bank for Palisades NPP
10:46–10:58AM EST
Learning Objects: The Road to a Data-Driven SAT Process
10:58–11:10AM EST
Jaime Redondo Morais (Westinghouse Electric Co.)
Person Based Training: Succeeding in Today's Online Training Environment
11:10–11:22AM EST
Isaac E. Hartsell (Knowledge Objectives)
Presented by Gary Aitken (E3 Services)
Saving the Nuclear Industry: Centralizing Knowledge and Streamlining Content Development
11:22–11:34AM EST
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