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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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Sep 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 RPD
Wednesday, November 12, 2025|3:15–5:00PM EST|Room 15
Session Chair:
Luiz C. Leal
Alternate Chair:
Massimiliano Fratoni
Session Organizer:
Zeyun Wu
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Study on Neutron Diffusion Calculation based on Particle Method for Multiphysics Simulation of Fuel Debris Retrieval
3:15–3:35PM EST
Shogo Kumita (Nagoya University), Tomohiro Endo (Nagoya University), Akio Yamamoto (Nagoya University)
Paper
Reactor Physics Analysis of High Burnup Thorium-HALEU Fuel for CANDU 600
3:35–3:55PM EST
Anna Kudriavtseva (Clean Core Thorium Energy), Koroush Shirvan (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Paul Chan (Clean Core Thorium Energy), Mehul R. Shah (Clean Core Thorium Energy), Milan Shah (Clean Core Thorium Energy)
MC2 -3 DPA Evaluation: Verification and PyARC Integration
3:55–4:15PM EST
Hansol Park (Argonne National Laboratory), Nicolas E. Stauff (Argonne National Laboratory), Kalin Kiesling (Argonne National Laboratory), Taek Kyum Kim (Argonne National Laboratory), Fausto Franceschini (Westinghouse Electric Co. LLC)
FIM4NTRA: A Code for Neutronics Analyses Based on The Fission Matrix Method
4:15–4:35PM EST
Christian Vita (Politecnico di Torino), Nicolo' Abrate (Politecnico di Torino), Sandra Dulla (Politecnico di Torino), Fausto Franceschini (Westinghouse Electric Company), Nicolas E. Stauff (Argonne National Laboratory), Valerio Mascolino (Argonne National Laboratory), William Walters (Westinghouse Electric Company)
System Dynamics Analysis Tool (SDAT) - Unified System Dynamics in Advanced Reactor Systems
4:35–4:55PM EST
Thabit M. Abuqudaira (TAMU), Pavel V. Tsvetkov (TAMU)
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