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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|Panel|Sponsored by Nuclear Supply Chain
Tuesday, August 11, 2020|4:00–5:30PM EDT
Session Organizer:
Bill Fry (Duke Energy)
Knowledge Manager:
Lee Causey (Duke Energy)
Nuclear Supply Chains typically have a much more difficult time achieving standard supplier diversity goals than their counterparts. Some of the reasons for this include the volume of purchases made with the large OEMs, virtually all of which are investor-owned, the overhead necessary to support Appendix B programs, and safety requirement. Subcontracting and the engagement of Tier II suppliers is often talked about but rarely implemented to any degree of effectiveness. Many of the conferences and trade shows featuring diverse suppliers are not geared toward nuclear. This workshop will focus overcoming some of the challenges to the inclusion of diverse suppliers in the nuclear Supply Chain - a successful diverse nuclear supplier, successes in the inclusion of diverse businesses as Tier I and Tier II suppliers, and best practices to achieve these successes.
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