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Fusion Science and Technology
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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.
Yoshinori Kawamura, Wataru Shu, Masao Matsuyama, Toshihiko Yamanishi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 3 | October 2011 | Pages 986-989
Measurement, Monitoring, and Accountancy | Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12581
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Beta ray induced X-ray spectrometry (BIXS) is one of the methods applicable to tritium gas monitor. It can measure tritium by counting the X-ray that is induced by interaction between the beta ray of tritium and the materials. Tritium gas monitor of BIXS use installed into Tritium Process Laboratory (TPL) in Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) uses NaI(Tl) as the scintillator. In this work, the NaI scintillator and the photo-multiplier that can work at 150°C have been installed instead of the ordinary scintillator and photo-multiplier. And, the sample gas such as He, T2, or T2 (1%)/He mixture was introduced into the tritium gas monitor kept at 120°C. Then, the counting rate was observed. The counting rate at 120°C was about a half of that at the room temperature. The counting rate after the heating was almost same with that before the heating. So, the deterioration of the scintillator by the heating has not been observed.
