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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.
G. Ramponi, D. Farina, M. A. Henderson, E. Poli, G. Saibene, H. Zohm
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 52 | Number 2 | August 2007 | Pages 193-201
Technical Paper | Electron Cyclotron Wave Physics, Technology, and Applications - Part 1 | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1498
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The ability of ITER electron cyclotron (EC) wave launchers to drive localized current at various plasma locations is analyzed by means of beam-tracing codes, looking at extended physics application of EC current drive in ITER and at possible synergy between the two launchers. Calculations for an improved design of the upper launcher, based on four upper ports and front steering mirrors allowing both optimum focusing of the beams and an extended plasma deposition region, show that narrow, high peak current density profiles may be maintained over the radial range 0.4 p 0.9. Calculations for the equatorial launcher, where the control of the deposition location is achieved by varying the toroidal injection angle , point out that because of poor localization and incomplete power absorption at large toroidal angles ( > 40 deg), the power deposition and current drive location by this launcher is limited to p 0.55. Moreover, it is shown that performance close to the center can be improved with a poloidal tilt of the low and top front mirrors. The main aim of this study is to provide guidance to the design of both launchers in order to optimize their performance, depending on the physics application.
