ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
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.
International High Level Radioactive Waste Management (IHLRWM 2025)
Plenary Session|Panel
Monday, November 10, 2025|1:00–2:45PM EST
Session Organizers:
Steve Nesbit
John Starkey (Director of Public Policy, American Nuclear Society)
There have been fifteen years of near-total federal government inaction on the nuclear waste front since the Department of Energy (DOE) ceased work on the Yucca Mountain geologic repository in 2010. The U.S. Congress steadfastly refuses to fund the Yucca Mountain Project, but it has made no changes to the official U.S. policy for managing used nuclear fuel, defense high-level radioactive waste, and other materials addressed by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act.
Nevertheless, there are recent signs that progress may be possible. DOE is developing the design for a consolidated storage facility (CSF) for used nuclear fuel, and it is working collaboratively with stakeholders to find a willing host community and state for one or more CSFs. Voices in Congress are advocating federal actions to address the government’s obligations related to nuclear waste, evinced by the formation of the Spent Nuclear Fuel Solutions Caucus. Private companies have entered the fray with proposals for technological innovations such as borehole disposition, as an alternative to a mined geological repository, and advanced used fuel recycling technologies, to recover fissile material and other valuable radioisotopes. One of the May 23, 2025 Executive Orders charged the Secretary of Energy to develop “… a recommended national policy to support the management of spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste and the development and deployment of advanced fuel cycle capabilities to establish a safe secure, and sustainable long-term fuel cycle … .” DOE is working diligently to develop the report, which is due in January 2026.
Against that backdrop, the opening plenary panelists will discuss opportunities for progress in nuclear waste management. The lack of a used fuel management program has not derailed the burgeoning interest in new nuclear energy in the U.S., but it is a sizable cloud on that horizon. What should the upcoming DOE report say? How are political and financial challenges to be addressed? How likely is congressional action, and what form will it take? What can the technical community do to help break the logjam?
Opening Speaker: Sylvia J. Saltzstein (Sandia National Laboratories)
To join the conversation, you must be logged in and registered for the meeting.
Register NowLog In
