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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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.
Mark Gake serves as the Nuclear Technology Portfolio Manager and Nuclear Projects Director for Black & Veatch's Advanced Power Generation group. In this role, Mark is responsible for the execution of nuclear new build projects, operating plant projects, decommissioning projects, and Engineer-Procure-Construct (EPC) projects for the Nuclear Organization of Black & Veatch's Advanced Power Generation group. In the Nuclear Technology Portfolio Manager role, Mark is responsible for nuclear strategy, developing technology and targeted market solutions, and managing Black & Veatch's global corporate relationships with the nuclear reactor OEMs and key technology providers. The nuclear technology focus includes both power reactors and non-power or research reactors, fission and fusion processes, Generation III+ and Generation IV advanced reactors, and medical isotope production facilities. Mark has worked on a variety of nuclear projects over his 32 plus year career, including new build projects in the U.S., the United Kingdom, and Taiwan.
Last modified July 26, 2024, 11:40am EDT
