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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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Sep 2025
Jan 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.
Technical Session|Sponsored by MSTD
Wednesday, November 12, 2025|8:00–9:45AM EST|Room 3
Session Chair:
Jake R. Quincey
Session Organizer:
Alternate Chair:
Kenneth J. Geelhood
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Identified Gaps in FLiBe Fuel Salt Thermal Physical Properties for NRC Licensing
8:00–8:20AM EST
Dilan Kurukulasuriya (University of Illinois Urbana Champaign), Lane B. Carasik (Virginia Commonwealth University), Stephen T. Lam (University of Massachusetts at Lowell)
Paper
Safety Analysis on Fission Induced Thermophysical Property Alterations of MCFR Fuel Salt
8:20–8:40AM EST
D. Nathanael Gardner (Univ. California, Berkeley), Zachary A. Falkowski (Univ. California, Berkeley), Ludovic Jantzen (Univ. California, Berkeley), Juan M. Barrera Salazar (Univ. California, Berkeley), Massimiliano Fratoni (University of California Berkeley), Raluca O. Scarlat (University of California Berkeley)
Archimedes Method for Molten Salt Density Using Vacuum Oil
8:40–9:00AM EST
Brindley E. Wade (TAMU), Luis H. Ortega (TAMU), Delia Perez-Nunez (TAMU), T. D. Stout (Texas A&M University)
Viscosity Measurements of Molten LiCl-KCl via Passive Microrheology
9:00–9:20AM EST
Hayden S. Bland (North Carolina State University), Alexander W. Bataller (North Carolina State University)
In situ Electrochemical Detection of Corrosion Products from Molten Salt Pump Candidate Materials
9:20–9:40AM EST
Michael Borrello (University of California Berkeley), Raluca O. Scarlat (University of California Berkeley)
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