ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
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.
Babulal Gopalapillai et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 61 | Number 1 | January 2012 | Pages 113-118
Fusion | Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-A13406
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
ITER is a joint international fusion facility which is being built in France to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion power. ITER will pave the way for the commercial exploitation of nuclear fusion to meet the ever increasing energy needs of mankind. Fusion power at ITER is generated using a Tokamak machine in which burning plasma inside the vacuum vessel at temperatures in excess of 150 million °C is confined by magnetic fields. The heat energy generated from the Tokamak and the auxiliary systems is removed by the Cooling Water System (CWS). The cooling water system is designed to remove the total peak heat load of about 1100 MW to the atmosphere by circulating approximately 25,000 m3 of water of diverse chemical specifications in multiple loops.The design of the cooling water systems considers occupational health and safety, nuclear safety, radiation protection, and environmental protection requirements. Minimizing environmental impact is a major factor in demonstrating the viability of fusion energy as a future energy source. This paper presents the features in the design of CWS for making it environmentally friendly.
