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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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Sep 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.
TopFuel 2025: Nuclear Reactor Fuel Performance Conference
President
Westinghouse Nuclear Fuel
Tarik Choho is President of Nuclear Fuel for the Westinghouse Electric Company since July 2022. In this role, he leads the development and delivery of Westinghouse’s comprehensive nuclear fuel portfolio and services for all types of reactors around the globe (PWRs, BWRs, VVERs and AGRs).
He joined Westinghouse as President, Europe, Middle East, and Africa Operating Plant Services in August 2019, bringing more than 25 years of energy industry experience to lead sales as well as products and services delivery for the EMEA core business for nuclear operating plant customers.
Previously, he led AREVA’s sales and business development globally, as well as their EMEA business. Before that, he held several technical and leadership positions within AREVA’s fuel recycling and waste management, nuclear material transportation and storage, fuel engineering and sales, and mining and enrichment businesses.
He then became managing director of OCP Group, a world leader in phosphate-based fertilizers, where he led the company’s commercial, strategy and development of group activities worldwide.
Tarik Choho is a graduate engineer in Process Engineering from the Paris École Polytechnique and in Mechanical Engineering from the École Nationale Supérieure des Techniques Avancées (ENSTA). He holds a master’s degree in Mathematics and Automatics from Université Paris Dauphine as well as an Executive Business Management degree from INSEAD.
Last modified August 27, 2025, 2:08pm CDT
