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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.
Educational Session|Sponsored by Nuclear Supply Chain
Tuesday, August 11, 2020|2:00–3:30PM EDT
Session Organizer:
Bill Fry (Duke Energy)
Knowledge Manager:
Lee Causey (Duke Energy)
The industry many times makes it difficult for suppliers to meet our requirements in the most cost effective way for both the utility and the supplier. When different utilities (and sometimes different plants within that utility) request items, they have widely varying descriptions of what they desire. This goes beyond the technical requirements being imposed and includes our terms of conditions, invoicing instructions, and procurement levels. It also will include effective interfacing between the appropriate levels in each organization, minimizing late night call-outs, things utilities can do to reduce cost, and things utilities do that hurt the process. This session will be a workshop where various suppliers can brainstorm with their utility counterparts on ways in which changes can be made that will assist both sides in reducing costs and decreasing number of non-conformances. Goal will be recommendations for the industry in a number of areas that will help alleviate these impediments.
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