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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|Sponsored by FCWMD
Tuesday, October 7, 2025|10:00–11:40AM CDT|Salon A
Session Chair:
Juri Stuckert
Alternate Chair:
Dong-Joo Kim
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Irradiation Vehicles for Evaluating SiC/SiC Cladding Bowing Under Neutron Flux Gradients
10:00–10:25AM CDT
Nicholas G. Russell (ORNL), David Chandler (ORNL), Peter Doyle (ORNL), Takaaki Koyanagi (ORNL), Christian M. Petrie (ORNL)
Paper
Inspection of Cladding Coating with Wideband Laser Induced Guided Ultrasonic Waves
10:25–10:50AM CDT
Andrew Campbell (Univ of South Carolina), Jiawei Guo (Univ of South Carolina), Boshi Chen (Univ of South Carolina), JANNATUL FERDAUSI (Univ of South Carolina), Yi Wang (Univ of South Carolina), Lingyu Yu (Univ. South Carolina), Victor Giurgiutiu (University of South Carolina)
Mechanical Testing of Hydrogen-Charged Cr-Coated Zirconium Alloy Fuel Claddings
10:50–11:15AM CDT
Daniel Viands (University of South Carolina), Ian Hopkins (University of South Carolina), Jingjing Bao (University of South Carolina), Jorie Walters (Westinghouse Electric Co.), Xinyu Huang (University of South Carolina)
Fuel Cladding Irradiations in the High Flux Reactor
11:15–11:40AM CDT
Steven Knol (NRG|PALLAS), Viktors Grismanovs (NRG|PALLAS), Tim v. Lunteren (NRG|PALLAS)
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