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Fusion Science and Technology
August 2025
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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.
A. Jelea, F. Marinelli, Y. Ferro, A. Allouche, C. Brosset
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 50 | Number 1 | July 2006 | Pages 33-42
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST06-A1218
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Quantum molecular dynamics calculations at constant temperature have been carried out in order to study the interaction between atomic oxygen and a hydrogen saturated graphite surface. It has been shown that atomic oxygen reacts at 300 K with the adsorbed hydrogen atoms to form hydroxyl radicals and water molecules. Part of these residue radicals adsorbs on the graphite forming hydroxylated structures. A study on the stability of these structures has shown that OH radical desorption begins at 500 K and formation of water molecules occurs by reaction between a desorbed hydroxyl radical and a hydrogen atom extracted from a neighboring adsorbed hydroxyl. The water molecules only very slightly interact with the graphite surface and are ejected into the gas phase.
