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.
Technical Session|Sponsored by RPD
Tuesday, November 11, 2025|1:00–2:45PM EST|Room 15
Session Chair:
Travis Lange (INL)
Alternate Chair:
Ishita Trivedi
Session Organizer:
Zeyun Wu
To access paper attachments, you must be logged in and registered for the meeting.
Register NowLog In
Update on New Models Available on the Virtual Test Bed (VTB) in 2025
1:00–1:20PM EST
Lise Charlot (Idaho National Laboratory), Emily R. Shemon (Argonne National Laboratory), Guillaume Giudicelli (Idaho National Laboratory), Patrick Behne (Idaho National Laboratory), Benjamin Spencer (Idaho National Laboratory), Zachary M. Prince (Idaho National Laboratory), Yinbin Miao (Argonne National Laboratory), Yan Cao (Argonne National Laboratory), Soon K. Lee (Argonne National Laboratory), Nicolas E. Stauff (Argonne National Laboratory), Travis Lange (Idaho National Laboratory), Olin W. Calvin (Idaho National Laboratory), Kylee Swanson (Idaho National Laboratory), Daniel C. Yankura (Idaho National Laboratory), Pierre-Clement A. Simon (Idaho National Laboratory), Masashi Shimada (Idaho National Laboratory), Thomas Folk (Idaho National Laboratory - National Reactor Innovation Center)
Paper
NEAMS Microreactor Models Submitted to the VTB in 2025
1:20–1:40PM EST
Yinbin Miao (Argonne National Laboratory), Ahmed Amin Abdelhameed (Argonne National Laboratory), Yan Cao (Argonne National Laboratory), Soon K. Lee (Argonne National Laboratory), Yiqi Yu (Argonne National Laboratory), Kun Mo (Argonne National Laboratory), Nicolas Stauff (Argonne National Laboratory), Emily Shemon (Argonne National Laboratory)
Development of a Modular Framework for the Verification of the NRIC-DOME Shield Two-step Approach
1:40–2:00PM EST
Joffrey Dorville (Argonne National Laboratory), Paul A. Ferney (Idaho National Laboratory), Mohamed Elkamash (Idaho National Laboratory), Paul K. Romano (Argonne National Laboratory), Lise Charlot (Idaho National Laboratory), Emily Shemon (Argonne National Laboratory)
A Variance Reduction Workflow to Compute Neutron and Photon Flux Maps in the DOME Facility
2:00–2:20PM EST
Paul A. Ferney (Young Members Group), Mohamed Elkamash (INL), Joffrey Dorville (ANL), Paul Romano (ANL), Lise Charlot (INL), Emily R. Shemon (ANL)
Modeling Radiation Heat Transfer in The DOME Shield Cavity
2:20–2:40PM EST
Mohamed M. Elkamash (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Lise Charlot (Idaho National Laboratory), Joffrey J. Dorville (Argonne National Laboratory), Paul A. Ferney (Idaho National Laboratory), Emily R. Shemon (Argonne National Laboratory), Paul Romano (Argonne National Laboratory), April J. Novak (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
To join the conversation, you must be logged in and registered for the meeting.
