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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
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)
Technical Session
Wednesday, November 12, 2025|10:15AM–12:00PM EST|Room 1
Session Chair:
Erika Holt
Session Organizer:
Alternate Chair:
Emily R. Stein
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Establishing the Infrastructure Required to Foster Innovative Disposal Concept Optimization
10:15–10:35AM EST
Hiroyuki Umeki (Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Japan), Takafumi Hamamoto (NUMO, Japan), Takeshi Ebashi (NUMO, Japan), Keisuke Ishida (NUMO, Japan), Ian G. McKinley (McKinley Consulting)
Paper
Project Development and Optimization of the Swiss Disposal Program
10:35–10:55AM EST
Irina Gaus (Nagra), Efstathios Vlassopoulos (Nagra), Ingo Blechschmidt (Nagra), Severin Wälchli (Nagra)
Beishan Underground Research Laboratory for Geological Disposal of High Level Radioactive Waste in China, Update 2025
10:55–11:15AM EST
Ju Wang (Beijing Research Institute of Uranium)
SITEX.Network Analyses on Deep Borehole Repository
11:15–11:35AM EST
Nadja Zeleznik (EIMV), Muriel Rocher (ASNR), Dephine Pellegrini (ASNR)
Development of Regulatory Requirements for Site-Specific URLs for DGR in Korea
11:35–11:55AM EST
Sangsu Park (Korean Institute of Nuclear Safety), Jeheon Bang (KINS), Jinyong Park (Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety)
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