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Fusion Science and Technology
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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.
L. Patryl, D. Galeriu, P. Armand
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 4 | November 2011 | Pages 1228-1231
Environmental and Organically Bound Tritium | Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology (Part 2) | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12652
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Precipitation scavenging coefficients, such as the HTO washout rate, are often derived from raindrop intensity and average velocity of drop. In this study, several Drop Size Distribution (DSD) functions based on experimental data are compared to calculate HTO concentration, by using Chamberlain equation, then the washout rate. Variability of Gamma, Lognormal and Marshall-Palmer distributions on the rain concentrations and washout rates are estimated. The fall velocities of drops are computed for every DSD with Kessler, Andronache, Seinfield and Loosmore and empirical formula used in the CEA code called CERES which is the CEA reference computational tool for impact assessment. Results show that the HTO concentration in drops and the scavenging coefficient depends very closely on rain characteristics. More than the choice of velocity drop calculations, which represent an uncertainty less than 20%, the choice of the distribution is important and depends on the rain observed. Certain assumptions can lead to uncertainty about a factor 2 to 3 on HTO concentration in rain and on the washout rate.
