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.
Celine C. Lascar, S. I. Abdel-Khalik, D. L. Sadowski
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 52 | Number 3 | October 2007 | Pages 489-493
Technical Paper | The Technology of Fusion Energy - Inertial Fusion Technology: Targets and Chambers | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1536
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In a high-yield, low repetition rate Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) system, such as the Z-Pinch IFE reactor, compressible liquid/gas jets offer the opportunity to protect the cavity walls from the target X-rays, ions and neutrons. They can especially limit and mitigate the mechanical consequences of the shock waves produced by rapid heating/evaporation of the protective jets. In this investigation, experiments have been conducted to examine the stability of two-phase jets and quantify the extent by which they can attenuate a shock wave. An exploding wire was used to generate a shock wave at the center of downward flowing annular single- and two-phase jets within a concentric cylindrical enclosure. The pressure history at the enclosure wall was recorded as the shock wave propagated through the attenuating two-phase medium. Experiments were conducted using two different-size jets and enclosures at various liquid velocities, void fractions, and initial shock strength. The data showed that stable coherent jets could be established and steadily maintained with relatively high void fractions and that significant attenuation in shock strength could be attained at relatively modest void fractions. The data obtained in this investigation can be used to validate predictions of shock attenuation models for future IFE reactor cavities.