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Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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.
E. A. Veshchev, L. Bertalot, S. Putvinski, M. Garcia-Munoz, S. W. Lisgo, C. S. Pitcher, R. A. Pitts, V. S. Udintsev, M. Walsh
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 61 | Number 2 | February 2012 | Pages 172-184
Technical Paper by Monaco ITER Postdoctoral Fellows | First Joint ITER-IAEA Technical Meeting on Analysis of ITER Materials and Technologies | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-A13385
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A feasibility study for a fast-ion-loss detector in ITER has been carried out. Taking into account the basic requirements for measuring magnetohydrodynamic (MHD)-induced fast-ion (fusion-born alpha particles and ions from external heating systems) losses and the harsh environments expected in ITER plasmas, a solution based on a reciprocating probe installed in an equatorial port is suggested. In agreement with previous studies, Monte Carlo simulations of alpha-particle load on the first wall in MHD quiescent plasmas indicate that the main losses will be concentrated below the midplane, in the region of blanket module (BM) 15 to BM 18. Orbit tracing and thermal analysis, including plasma photonic and particle fluxes together with nuclear heating, have been performed to estimate the most suitable measurement timing and position of the reciprocating probe, enabling the detection of escaping alpha particles with pitch angles from [approximately]0 to 85 deg. This large velocity space ensures the detection of escaping alpha particles on both passing and trapped orbits, allowing the study of the interaction between alpha particles and a rich variety of MHD instabilities.